EDITORIAL: Deficits for millionaires? No problem. But for sick kids, it’s pay as you go.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

Dec. 11--Republican Congressional leaders have been so busy cutting taxes for rich people that they haven't gotten around to funding the Children's Health Insurance Program. It serves 8.9 million children nationwide and provides maternity care for about 370,000 women.

CHIP serves children in families that earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. In Missouri, families earning up to 300 percent of federal poverty guidelines ($5,040 a month for a family of three) are eligible; in Illinois, it's 200 percent. Families at the high end of income eligibility must pay cost-sharing premiums.

CHIP covers about 27,000 Missouri kids each month and about 88,000 at some point each year. Another 600,000 or so are covered by the federal-state Medicaid program. Only the CHIP kids are at risk because of congressional inaction.

The program, begun in 1997, is credited with helping cut the uninsured rate for children from 14 percent to 5 percent. Families can afford to take their kids to the doctor for preventive care, meaning that potential health problems are headed off before they become serious, making them less costly to treat when kids do get sick. The program is aimed at the working poor and has thus been popular with Republicans and Democrats alike.

Not this year. CHIP funding expired Sept. 30 as the program got caught up in squabbling over repealing the Affordable Care Act -- though CHIP is an entirely separate program.

Since then Congress has been focused on tax cuts, though the House did pass a funding bill in early November loaded down with poison pills, such as stripping some Obamacare funding to pay for it. Congress is willing to go $1.5 trillion in debt for tax cuts to benefit corporations and rich people but can't find $70 billion to keep CHIP going for five years.

No child has lost care yet as federal officials have shuffled money between states to cover shortfalls. California, with 15 percent of the CHIP recipients, has said it will exhaust its funds by the end of December. Other states have begun preparing to wind down their programs should all funding dry up. Missouri officials say they can keep going through March.

It's possible that congressional leaders will try to roll CHIP funding into the omnibus spending bill they hope to pass by Christmas -- assuming they can get an extension until then. The federal government's spending authorization expires Friday, and President Donald Trump has said he's willing to see government shut down rather than work with Democrats, whose support for budget bills is needed in the Senate.

As inept as Congress is, you'd think members could get together on something as vital as keeping children healthy. Those 8.9 million kids are going to have to make some serious campaign contributions.

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