The Post Editorial Common ground on CHIP funding
This is the test. Can Republicans and Democrats put aside their disagreements and ensure kids across the nation will keep their federally funded health insurance in coming months?
Colorado’s U.S. senators joined on as co-sponsors to a bill that would set aside more than $15 billion a year to resume funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Sens. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and Cory Gardner, a Republican, are a bipartisan example for their colleagues.
The New York Times reported that two states are preparing to run out of money for CHIP before the end of the year, and 27 additional states will run out of money by March.
Colorado officials told The Denver Post there is enough reserve money in the system to get through the end of January, but after that the health insurance provided for 75,000 kids and 800 pregnant women in Colorado would be in jeopardy.
What, you may ask, is the holdup?
Well, this issue perfectly captures the entire health care debate in the United States. CHIP is an expensive federal program — made more generous by the controversial Affordable Care Act and an earlier expansion by President Barack Obama — and Republicans want to use this deadline to pass reforms curbing costs and finding funding sources.
Obamacare increased the federal share of funding for CHIP by 23 percentage points beginning in 2015, which means a few states now have their entire CHIP programs paid for by the federal government and most are at 88 percent.
On Wednesday in committee, Democrats in the House balked at the GOP proposals to cut federal funding to other health care programs. Twenty-three of them voted against a bill that would have reauthorized CHIP but also included ways to pay for the program including higher premium rates for wealthy individuals on Medicare. The House bill has serious flaws that almost seem designed to force Democrats to cast a vote against health care for children.
The Senate version is the better bill. It will kill the Obamacare-increased funding but do so over the course of four years. We’re proud of Bennet and Gardner for both getting on board with a plan we’re sure neither find ideal but is at least palatable.
Much work remains on the legislation and we hope that as Republicans try to find funding sources for the legislation they keep in mind that while they have received a mandate to lead, they still need the support of a few Democrats in the Senate to do so.
Republicans can consider rolling back an Obamacare increase in funding a victory even if they don’t get all that they would hope for. And Democrats can rest easy knowing they didn’t use a filibuster to block a bill that still protects the health of pregnant women and children even if states’ budgets will feel a squeeze in a few years.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who helped create the original CHIP program in 1993 told The New York Times that his bill to fund CHIP is “a prime example of what government can accomplish when both parties work together.”
It would reflect poorly on both parties if children across the country are stripped of their health care because of an inability to compromise in a timely manner. The members of The Denver Post’s editorial board are William Dean Singleton, chairman; Mac Tully, CEO and publisher; Chuck Plunkett, editor of the editorial pages; Megan Schrader, editorial writer; and Cohen Peart, opinion editor.