The Children’s Health Insurance Program is enduring an unprecedented crisis: More than 100 days ago, funding for a program that covers 9 million kids technically expired. Republicans in Congress haven’t rushed to extend it long-term — not until they could get something in return.
CHIP is ostensibly among the most popular, most bipartisan parts of the social safety net, with proven benefits for children’s health and the financial well-being of their families. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in November found extending its funding was the American public’s top legislative priority.
But it has been left to twist in the wind while families receive “devastating” letters from their states about the program’s possible end. CHIP funding was expiring at the end of September, but Republicans set it aside that month to pursue a last-ditch run at repealing Obamacare. Then in November, the House passed a CHIP extension, which would have cut Medicare and Obamacare funding to appease their most conservative members and cover the then-$8 billion price tag. Now, after the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate in the Republican tax bill, Congress could extend CHIP for a full six years at no cost to the government — and it would in fact save the government money if they extended it further.
So Republicans, after months of criticism and a stalemate over how to pay for CHIP, have decided to turn the tables: They attached a six-year CHIP extension to their short-term spending bill in an attempt to deter Democrats from shutting down the federal government this week over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the two parties still haven’t agree on how to fix.
#Senate Democrats have a choice to make. This should be a no-brainer...
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