COLUMBUS (WCMH) — There was a shocking announcement at the Ohio Statehouse Thursday that had parents of children with medical disabilities cheering–and in tears.

For more than a month, we’ve been telling you about the budget battle that put funding for the Bureau of Children with Medical Handicaps at risk. More than 40,000 Ohio families rely on BCMH funding.

It’s a safety net for low- and middle-income families, and it helps to pay for medicines, therapies, devices and nursing care covered by insurance. But it’s in the red, and John Kasich’s administration proposed big changes that would mean the end of BCMH as we know it. Parents have been sharing their stories with us, and NBC4 was with parents as they got the news they’d been praying for.

One by one, parents made impassioned pleas and shared their stories.

“When you are holding your newborn baby and the doctor is saying that you will likely outlive him, the last thing you want to think about is the expensive medical care he is going to need to stay alive,” said mother Christina Hanchy.

The Health and Human Services finance subcommittee took testimony on the Kasich budget plan to shift half of the BCMH families to Medicaid and try to grandfather others in, but take the program away for children with handicaps born after July 1. Most of these families fear that under the new criteria, they would be on their own. The committee seemed polite–but stoic. So when the chairman asked to meet with parents in the hallway, they were skeptical.

The committee–before the hearing even ended–decided to reject the Kasich plan to overhaul BCMH.

“I just want to let you know it will be the recommendation of this committee to pull it out of the budget,” said Rep. Mark Romanchu (R), chair of the finance subcommittee. “So we want you to stop worrying, we want you to go home.”

“It’s just huge,” said Jennifer Fountain. “It’s just huge. And it’s amazing what all of us parents can do when we stick together.”

“My worry for families is that they will have to quit their jobs to become eligible for Medicaid, juggle delinquent bills, or, worse yet, forgo necessary therapies so that children who do have the opportunity to improve don’t,” said parent Elizabeth O’Leary.

The subcommittee recommendation is expected to be adopted by the full house, and the Kasich plan to overhaul BCMH will essentially be road-blocked.

The program has a budget shortfall of about $11 million, but parents say that’s because funding was drastically reduced several years ago. They say the program is efficient, but underfunded.

Rev. David Hoffman, who advises BCMH parents, said the group will keep pushing.

“The safety net, it sounds like, will still be there and that’s great,” he said. “We’re going to keep fighting. You know we have. We’ve been at this for 10 years, and parents with children with special healthcare needs are used to doing whatever they can to ensure the health of their kids.”