Campaign Action
While the House and Senate are figuring out how to give massive tax cuts to the rich while also destroying Obamacare and Medicare, they're ignoring the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers which haven't been funded in 45 days. So there's another 35 or so million people whose health care they are putting in jeopardy. On top of the 13 million who will lose insurance in the next decade if the individual mandate is repealed.
Meanwhile, Texas is just weeks away from "chaos."
The families of roughly 400,000 children in Texas could be receiving letters from state officials in a matter of weeks, letting them know their health care is ending. […]
"It is very likely that sometime in the month of December—and it could be as early as Dec. 1st—families in Texas will start receiving letters about coverage termination," says Laura Guerra-Cardus, deputy director with the Children's Defense Fund in Austin.
Guerra-Cardus helps families enroll in CHIP, which provides health care for children in mostly working-class families. She says some families are already stressed about the possibility of the program shutting down.
"Even getting a letter like that, even if the program is eventually re-funded, it's going to cause incredible levels of stress for most families and chaos for some who cannot afford to have a gap in coverage for their children," she says.
Oh, it gets even better. If Texas has to kick kids off the program, but then gets the federal funding afterward, state law doesn't necessarily allow them to reinstate the coverage for the kids. They've never had to face this situation before, so the law isn't at all clear about what would happen.
But hey, Republicans are doing the important thing here. They're keeping their donors happy. Maybe their donors will be able to save them come November 2018, after they've taken health insurance away from 9 million children.
Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell them to stop holding kids hostage and to pass a clean funding bill for CHIP and community health centers.