Detroit News
By: Melissa Nann Burke
The U.S. Senate’s consideration of the latest Republican health care repeal bill might imperil the federal program that helps states provide health insurance for low-income children, including roughly 116,000 in Michigan.
An extension for the Children’s Health Insurance Program is needed by Sept. 30, when current funding is expected to run out. The program serves 9 million children across the country.
…
The bill complicates the negotiations to extend CHIP, covering 9 million children, while the Senate is debating a proposal that would mean drastic cuts to Medicaid, which covers 37 million children, said Kelly Whitener, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families.
Whitener predicted that, even if the Senate were to wrap up the Graham-Cassidy bill soon, it’s unlikely they’ll turn around and quickly approve the needed aid for CHIP or community health centers, despite bipartisan support for both programs.
“You can’t go from a really partisan, rancorous debate like that straight into a bipartisan one right away,” she said. “It’s not how we interact as human beings.”
…
Read more here.
