As of this morning, the nation's Children's Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance for about 9 million American children, has expired after its Sept. 30th expiration without House or Senate action came and went without action in the midst of continued Republican efforts to "repeal" the Affordable Care Act and to promote a new tax cut plan.
[T]hough the program's situation isn't yet dire -- and won't be until the states begin to run out of money -- some states are starting to get nervous about paying for the program.
"States are optimistic that Congress will actually act. They're not totally panicked yet," said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation. "But, they need to know very soon that addition money will be coming so they'll know how they can continue their programs." [...]
In the years following the program's passage, the uninsured rate among children fell significantly, from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 4.5 percent in 2015, according to a Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission report released early this year. An analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that families are more likely to take advantage of preventative and primary care after enrolling their children in the program.
Ten states will run out of funds for the program before the end of the year, including Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Utah, in particular, has warned that it will be forced to begin shutting down the program “immediately.”
An extension of the program being negotiated earlier in the month would have reauthorized the program—while axing the Affordable Care Act's increased funding. Even that fell victim to Senate Republicans' compulsive efforts to destroy "Obamacare" in its entirety.
“Momentum was building,” says Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, a children’s advocacy group in Washington. Then came Cassidy-Graham, and “we couldn’t even get a meeting,” Lesley says. “No one was even taking our calls.” [...]
Is there any more poignant example of how Congress’ wasteful partisanship affects ordinary Americans? It’s hard to imagine one. If the lawmakers can’t act in support of a program that was enacted in a spirit of bipartisanship and serves the most truly defenseless members of society, there’s no hope for them.
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TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—The morning after [the debate]:
Drudge last night floated one spin attempt — that Bush was emotionally drained because he had spent the day meeting with hurricane victims. So in other words, Bush can't handle his job.
But it wasn't just the eye rolling, nor the petulance, nor the fact he clearly hadn't prepped for the debate. It was also the content, and Bush gave our side plenty of material.
At one point, Kerry's asserted that 90 percent of cargo in Florida ports wasn't inspected, nor was cargo loaded in commercial flights, and that he would do better. Bush gave this amazing answer:
I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises.
In other words, your safety takes a back seat to Bush's tax cuts and his unnecessary war in Iraq.
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