CHIP funding extended six yearsHealthy Care

After 114 days without a long-term budget, the Children's Health Insurance Program is getting funding for the next six years. The program, which provides health insurance for 9 million American children, has enjoyed broad bipartisan support since its inception in 1997, but has been increasingly employed as a political carrot by Republicans--one which the Democrats refused until today.

"Last fall, Republicans proposed a plan to extend the CHIP program for an additional five years. But that plan included a series of deeply partisan spending cuts to cover the costs of extending CHIP — such as slashing Obamacare programs and Medicare — and Democrats refused to support the bill," Sarah Kliff reports for Vox. States scrambled for emergency funding over the next few months, but Republicans left the program on the back burner in favor of priorities such as repealing and replacing Obamacare, and pushing through the tax overhaul bill.

In its December continuing resolution, Congress awarded CHIP with enough emergency funding to pay for the program through mid- to late-January. But the two parties still couldn't agree for how to pay for it in the long-term. Democrats wanted the federal government to continue assuming much of the cost, while Republicans wanted states to eventually start paying for more. A Congressional Budget Office estimate took care of that debate though, saying the elimination of the ACA's individual mandate made it cheaper for states to have CHIP than not.

Senate Republicans added a six-year funding extension for CHIP onto the latest continuing resolution bill to tempt Democrats, who were holding out for action on the DACA program. Dems agreed to the funding bill today after a three-day government shutdown, but only after extracting a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on a DACA bill. The Democrats are hoping that, when the funding bill runs out on Feb. 8, they'll have more leverage on DACA without CHIP hanging over their heads, Dylan Scott reports for Vox.

from Kentucky Health News http://ift.tt/2Bm9gp3 CHIP funding extended six yearsHealthy Care