The next spending deal to fund the government will not include measures intended to stabilize Obamacare, while lawmakers have not reached a deal on long-term funding for children's health insurance.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said two bills aimed at stabilizing Obamacare’s insurance exchanges are not going to be in the deal. Meanwhile, talks continue on finding a long-term solution for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which lawmakers from both parties want to get done but have not agreed on funding.
Collins told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that she never looked at the next spending bill as the vehicle for the two Obamacare bills. Congress must pass a spending deal by Jan. 19 to avert a partial government shutdown, which likely could be another short-term continuing resolution.
“We are still discussing the appropriate vehicles,” Collins said referring to the next step for the two bills.
Collins is pursuing legislation to fund Obamacare insurer payments for two years and a separate bill to give states $10 billion over two years to set up a reinsurance program that would give Obamacare insurers funding to pay their highest medical claims. That would lead to lower premiums overall.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump promised to support the legislation, but a major sticking point has been the House, where conservatives are deeply opposed to it.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said talks are continuing on the Obamacare bills. He doubted the bills, and CHIP, could make it into the Jan. 19 bill, but didn’t completely rule it out.
“It's a short amount of time and a lot of work to be done,” he said. “I'm hopeful that we can get there, but if we can't, we ought to do as much of it as we can now and then deal with the rest of it at a future time.”
Some senators are pressing to include long-term CHIP funding in the next continuing resolution.
The previous resolution was signed Dec. 22 and included nearly $3 billion in CHIP funding to tide over states.
CHIP expired Sept. 30 and states have been scrambling to ensure they have enough funding.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that he is pressing for a long-term funding deal for CHIP in the Jan. 19 bill. Hatch sponsored the original law that provides block grants to states to provide insurance to low-income children.
The House passed its own five-year reauthorization bill in November, but the legislation has gone nowhere in the Senate because of Democratic objections to funding offsets that include charging wealthy seniors higher Medicare premiums.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also called for reauthorizing CHIP and was dismayed at the pursuit of another short-term spending deal.
“We need to start authorizing and appropriating the right way,” he said Tuesday. “These [continuing resolutions] are killing the military and creating all kinds of concern on the part of families with children who need healthcare. This is not the way to run a government.”
• Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard contributed to this article.
