Congress has so far failed to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and our nation’s community health centers (FQHCs). Funding officially lapsed on October 1, the start of the 2018 federal fiscal year.
Authorized by the Affordable Care Act and later extended by the MACRA law, both programs have received bipartisan support but have also faced the frequent prospect of funding cuts due to the lack of bipartisan “pay-fors” to offset the costs of these programs. In recent weeks, negotiations between Republican and Democratic lawmakers concerning the necessary spending offsets have stalled. As a result, uncertainty remains as to whether and how these funding reauthorizations will pass into law before the end of the year, when the lapse in funding is expected to begin affecting providers.
Lacking a clear path for a bill to immediately pass into law, a majority of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle favor passing a bill to extend funding for these programs, raising hopes that a funding extension can still pass into law this year.
(See here for more details.)