Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed combining funding measures for the Children's Health Insurance Program with a bipartisan bill aimed at stabilizing insurance markets, though the second bill is still being drafted, according to The Hill.
Funding for CHIP expired Sept. 30, and legislators in both the House and the Senate have been scrambling this week to draft bills to fund the program, which provides insurance for 9 million low-income children. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has written a funding bill for CHIP that he wants to stand alone, without including any other healthcare policy measures.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee, has been working with ranking member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., since early September to craft legislation that would fund cost-sharing reduction subsidies to stabilize ACA markets. Mr. Schumer called for Senate leadership to combine CHIP funding measures with the potential stabilization bill, though several Republicans rejected the idea.
"We should not jeopardize vulnerable children's health insurance coverage by turning the bill into a Christmas tree and adding controversial policies like bailing out insurance companies," Mr. Hatch said, according to The Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not comment on the combination proposal because the stabilization bill is still incomplete, so Mr. McConnell's office says the idea is only hypothetical.
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