The House passed legislation on Friday to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program and funding for Community Health Centers over objections from most Democrats on how the programs will be funded.
The bill passed 242-174, with help from just 15 Democrats. Three Republicans voted against the legislation.
The bill now advances to the Senate, which has yet to take up its own version that passed out of committee last month. Democrats objected to Republicans paying for the traditionally bipartisan program through raising premiums for wealthy Medicare seniors, raiding an Obamacare prevention fund and narrowing a grace period for Obamacare customers to pay premiums.
The bill reauthorizes CHIP, which provides insurance for low-income children, for five years and funds community health centers for two years.
CHIP expired on Sept. 30 but most states won’t run out of funds until early 2018. Some states could run out by the end of this month, a federal advisory panel warned Congress last month.
During floor debate, Democrats and Republicans argued over the bill’s offsets. The CHIP and Community Health Centers programs typically have bipartisan support.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., accused Republicans of harming one healthcare program to pay for another, and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., charged Republicans with using the CHIP bill as a way to harm Obamacare, after the Senate rejected a GOP bill to overhaul the law.
“A lot of people have a hard time paying their monthly premium … again this is a way to sabotage the Affordable Care Act,” Pallone said, using the formal name for Obamacare and slamming Republicans for narrowing Obamacare’s grace period.
Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he had tried to reach a consensus with Democrats but said it was time to push forward because the legislation was “long overdue.”
“We’re over the deadline,” he said. “It’s time to act.”
Walden, a Republican from Oregon, said he believed the approach taken was appropriate because they had used funds from existing programs.
“In paying for this package … we have taken a fiscally responsible approach,” he said.
It remains unclear when CHIP will be reauthorized.
The funding offsets will not likely receive Democratic support and the package would need at least 60 votes to break any filibuster in the Senate. The Senate Finance Committee passed its own version of CHIP reauthorization last month, but that bill didn’t include funding for community health centers or funding offsets.
Some Democrats warned that the reauthorizations likely won’t be taken up until the end of the year as part of a deal to fund the government.
“Part of my concern is that the bills are gonna go nowhere,” Pallone said at a House Rules Committee hearing on the bill to advance it to the House floor. “I know that in effect what we are doing today with all two of these bills, both CHIP and [the Independent Payment Advisory Board], is essentially punting until the end of the year. The Senate isn’t going to take these bills up.”
Kimberly Leonard contributed
