Congress Fails to Fund Children’s Health Insurance and Community Health Centers

Republicans Condemn 9 Million Children and 1,400 Community Health Centers Because They Didn’t Get Their Tax Cuts and Spending Reduction

Congress failed to fund the Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) for 9 million kids and 1,400 Community Health Centers by the Sept. 30, 2017 deadline. It is unclear why they did this, but one has to assume it is part of the ongoing strategy to break the ACA (so they can justify reducing spending and thereby justify their tax cuts).^[1][2]

This means some states will start running out of funding immediately, while others will be able to maintain CHIP and health centers for a short amount of time.

This news comes right after Republicans in Congress made yet another attempt to repeal and replace the ACA.

So far there have been no Republican bills that didn’t try to trade CHIP and Community Health Center funding for the defunding of Medicaid, and of course, since Republicans control Congress, the responsibility currently rests on their shoulders.

This news also comes after it was announced that Tom Price resigned as head of HHS, that open enrollment will be closed most Sundays, that advertising and outreached budgets have been slashed, that open enrollment will be shortened, and that Cost Sharing Reduction assistance might not be funded.

Some suggest that, in the spirit of right-wing think tanks like the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, that Republicans are purposefully trying to break the Affordable Care Act by “starving the beast.” Moves like this only give weight to that theory.

We all need to pay attention to the ongoing Republican plan to break ObamaCare, the ACA, to justify cuts to non-military spending, and deliver tax breaks for the GOP like cutting the both the Estate tax and AMT tax that only America’s most wealthy pay.

1. Funding hangs in limbo for the nation’s 1,400 community health centers
2. 9 million kids get insurance through CHIP. Congress is about to let its funding expire. September 30 is the deadline. Updated by Dylan [email protected]@vox.com Sep 27, 2017, 12:50pm EDT