- Short-Term Spending Agreement Provides Longer-Term Relief for CHIP Washington Post by Amy Goldstein — The spending bill that the Senate and House adopted Monday, and that President Trump signed, provides six years of federal money for the Children's Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan creation that furnishes coverage to nearly 9 million children and 375,000 pregnant women. The measure approved Monday will ward off that escalating drama, providing about $124 billion through 2023. For the first two years, federal money will pay for at least 88 percent of the program's expenses in every state — keeping a heightened federal match that was part of the Affordable Care Act. After that, the federal share will decrease over two years to its level before the 2010 ACA. For nearly five months, lawmakers of both parties rued that CHIP's budget had lapsed, with each side trying to claim the high ground in urging their colleagues to restore the funding. The spending plan does not provide financial relief for other important health programs — the nation's community health centers or the National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loans for students planning careers in primary care medicine.
- Community Health Centers Await Funding That Expired Months Ago The Hill by Jessie Hellmann — While Congress on Monday extended CHIP for six years, more than 1,000 community health centers around the country are still waiting for the government to take action on their own funding. Both programs expired at the end of September, but only CHIP was funded in the short-term spending bill signed by President Trump. Health centers — and those who advocate for them — are becoming anxious and frustrated. Community health centers cover about 27 million low-income people in 9,800 rural and urban communities across the U.S.