The Children's Health Insurance Plan is taken care of, but a host of other health care “extenders” are still waiting for congressional action, including funds for community health centers and graduate medical education.
The bottom line: Government funding runs out again in three weeks, presenting another opportunity for these programs to find some funding — and another round of potential shutdown drama. But the 9 million kids covered by CHIP won’t be caught in the middle next time.
The details: Those programs expired at the end of September along with CHIP, and were included in the stand-alone CHIP bill House Republicans passed in November, but didn’t make it into the spending bill that passed yesterday.
“The uncertainty is really sending a chill through the health centers … everybody’s very nervous,” said Claudia Gibson, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Federal funding makes up about 20% of health centers’ revenues, and the specific program still stalled on Capitol Hill accounts for about 70% of that money, she said. Some health centers have already adjusted their staffing to make up for the lack of funding.
“No one is against us, it’s just, they haven’t gotten to it,” Gibson told me.
