I’m not sure if House Republicans consider this to be a feature or a bug, but I’m going to assume it’s a feature since defunding Obamacare would entail similarly heinous things.
Under the government funding bill proposed by the House — which includes Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) amendment defunding Obamacare — the Children’s Health Insurance Program would lose about $13.3 billion dollars, or 70 percent of its funding, on October 1. CHIP provides health insurance coverage to children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but still cannot afford private coverage. The program was set to expire at the end of this month, but the Affordable Care Act reauthorized and funded it through 2015.
The entire CHIP program would reportedly shut down sometime just before Christmas if this were to happen.
Merry Christmas Tiny Tim.