Campaign Action
The Senate is busy setting up test votes on the Republicans' tax cut bill that is so full of awfulness that it's hard to keep track of it all: taxing graduate students out of their education, ending cancer treatment for Medicare patients, sneaking anti-abortion provisions into tax law, taking health insurance away from millions, raising taxes on lower-income people, and ending the deduction for charities. It's all incredibly awful.
Meanwhile, in Texas:
Unless it can get $90 million more in federal funding, though, Texas will end its Children's Health Insurance Program on Jan. 31. It would send notices about the program's termination to affected families on Dec. 22. More than 400,000 children of the working poor currently are covered under CHIP, as the state-federal program is known. […]
The state Health and Human Services Commission, which runs Texas' version, requested $90 million from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That would allow CHIP to continue in Texas through February. If the federal agency does not agree by Dec. 9, the commission would prepare to end the program in January and refer families to the Affordable Care Act's online health insurance marketplace. But there are many concerns about moving families from CHIP to healthcare.gov, according to Adriana Kohler, senior health policy associate for the advocacy group Texans Care for Children.
"Families might fall through the cracks, families might not be able to afford coverage in the marketplace," Kohler said. "And then there's the system issue that needs to be worked out. On the online marketplace, if you qualify for other insurance programs like CHIP, you cannot enroll in a marketplace plan. So these kids are technically eligible for CHIP, but their coverage will lapse after January."
Can you imagine getting that letter for Christmas? "Greetings from the state of Texas. Your kid is going to lose health insurance next year." Oh, and the system that we'll refer you to—Obamacare? Yeah, Congress and Trump are trying to kill that, too. Happy Holidays.
Republicans allowed federal funding to expire 60 days ago. Every single Republican is now officially a sociopathic monster for allowing this to happen.
Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans, but make the first call to Hatch. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell him to stop holding kids hostage and to pass a clean funding bill for CHIP and community health centers.