Campaign Action
It’s been 26 days since the Children’s Health Insurance Program expired, states are running low on funding and trying to figure out when to let parents know that their kids will be losing health insurance … and House Republicans are blaming Democrats for the delay. Republicans have proposed a series of poison pills for funding CHIP, so now they say everything is the Democrats’ fault for fighting that:
Democrats took issue with offsets that would cut funding to ObamaCare's public health fund and charge higher premiums to Medicare beneficiaries earning more than $500,000 a year.
The bill would also cut the grace period for ObamaCare enrollees who fail to make premium payments.
Gee, what a mystery why Democrats would oppose paying for health coverage for kids by cutting a public health fund. According to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Democrats just keep delaying (in order to push for clean funding), but in the Senate, Democrats are pushing hard for a vote and reminding us what’s going on here.
Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have sent Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a letter urging a vote. “There has always been a bipartisan consensus on the importance of reauthorizing CHIP, and this year is no different,” they write. Significantly, they go on to urge McConnell “to bring a bill to the floor quickly that includes pay-fors that are acceptable to both sides.” And that’s the hold-up. Republicans would claim Democrats were being unreasonable if they opposed a Republican-proposed pay-for of selling the blood of puppies and kittens to the Koch brothers as a youth tonic. Meanwhile, nearly 9 million children are being left hanging while Republicans try to gut a public health fund in their names.