There’s no good reason Congress continues to postpone a vote on health insurance for children
Soon, Congress will once again consider a short-term spending bill designed to keep the government running while procrastinating lawmakers figure out how to run the country.
Once again, Congress is expected to put off a decision on fully funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
The delay is unnecessary.
No one thinks Congress will actually abandon CHIP. Congressional Republicans would not dare end a 20-year program providing health insurance coverage for 9 million kids in low income families, including 80,000 in Kansas and 88,000 in Missouri.
But Congress can’t agree on a formula for funding the program for the current fiscal year, causing unneeded worry for parents across the country.
Why? To make a political point about excessive government spending, and a growing deficit? “The reason CHIP’s having trouble is we don’t have any money anymore,” Sen. Orrin Hatch said recently.
But CHIP’s budget is relatively modest — Washington’s share last year was roughly $16 billion. That’s a small and reasonable part of a $4 trillion budget.
The House passed a CHIP funding bill that cuts other health spending, while the Senate is still talking. But there is no need to cut other spending to pay for CHIP: The tax cut now on the table costs the government $150 billion a year, on average. A simple adjustment in the tax package could pay for CHIP.
It’s essential. Stories abound of young children being treated for life-threatening diseases, treatment they might have to forgo if CHIP disappears.
Meanwhile, parents in Missouri and Kansas whose kids have CHIP coverage are left wondering if the program will be there when they need it. So far, both states — and much of the country — have used leftover funds to pay for the program, which ran out of authorized funds at the end of September.
But states will soon run out of fiscal tricks. Missouri is expected to run out of CHIP funds in April; Kansas, perhaps a few weeks earlier.
That’s why a bipartisan group of governors endorsed CHIP funding Tuesday. It’s why television host Jimmy Kimmel made the program an issue Monday evening.
Congress should not use children’s health insurance to make a political point. There is no reason Congress should let families worry over the holidays. Full funding for CHIP should be included in any federal spending bill considered in the days to come.
If not, Americans can fairly conclude its representatives prefer tax cuts to health care for kids. It will be the clearest possible statement of what Congress thinks is important.
This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 4:40 PM with the headline "There’s no good reason Congress continues to postpone a vote on health insurance for children."