After the Senate failed to pass a version of repeal and replace in late July, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), announced there would be bipartisan hearings in September to try to develop legislation that would address some of the problems in the individual market in state exchanges. The first week after Labor Day, the committee will hear testimony from five governors and five state insurance commissioners on how Congress can help their states. The following week, the committee will hear from other stakeholders.
It is possible that Senator Alexander, along with the committee’s top Democrat, Patty Murray (WA), could craft legislation and try to insert it into a short-term appropriations extension or some other must-pass legislative vehicle that would continue federal payments for cost-sharing subsidies and provide states with the flexibility to attempt to bring down the cost of certain health care plans.
Medicare Extenders
Absent legislative action, certain health care-related provisions will lapse on September 30, 2017, and December 31, 2017. The expiring provisions relate to Medicare, Medicaid, the joint federal-state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and private health insurance programs and activities.
Two broad categories of programs are at risk should Congress not act. The first type provides temporary funding, such as Medicare provider payments. The second type authorizes government agencies to act.
Funding for the CHIP program will be foremost among these issues, accompanied by a batch of additional expiring provisions expected to cost around $6 billion. Among these “extenders” is the physical, occupational and speech-language pathology (SLP) therapy cap exception process created by Congress in 2006. Others include funding for community health centers, diabetes programs at the Indian Health Service, teen HIV/STD prevention, and infant and early childhood visitation programs, among others.
CHIP
Mandatory funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2017. Congress created the program in 1997 and it currently covers over 8 million children. CHIP gives states financial support to expand publicly funded coverage to uninsured children who are not eligible for Medicaid. As a block grant, it provides states with a set amount of funding that must be matched with state dollars. If Congress does not reauthorize the program before October 1, the federal government will no longer be able to provide its payments to states. However, it is possible for states to continue to provide CHIP coverage for another two or three months beyond the expiration date.
