House and Senate leaders floated a proposal Tuesday to fund a program that offers health insurance to children but expires this fall.
The draft bill doesn’t say how long it would extend funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Affordable Care Act reauthorized it through 2019, but only provided funding up to Sept. 30. If no action is taken by that date, more than 1 million children will lose coverage, according to an estimate from a federal agency that provides analysis on the program.
The proposal would also reduce funding to families with income above 250 percent of poverty levels and eliminate funding for those with incomes above 300 percent.
“This policy addresses concerns about crowding out private coverage and subsidizing upper-middle-class families,” according to a press release from the proposals’ sponsors: Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. All three are Republicans.
The proposal would retain the current formula for allocating federal funds through the program to states.
The lawmakers also seek to move more kids into the program and not into Medicaid. Obamacare requires states move children ages six to 18 in families with incomes between 100 and 133 percent above the federal poverty level into Medicaid.
Legislation would eliminate that requirement and provide states with greater flexibility, according to the proposal.
