Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Chairman Ken Martin today called on Representatives Erik Paulsen, Jason Lewis, and Tom Emmer along with their colleagues in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to step up and take immediate action to fund critical children’s health insurance programs before they run out of funding.
“While Republicans temporarily called off efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, it’s unfortunately still too soon to say they didn’t take away health care from millions of Americans,” DFL Chairman Martin said. “Amid their frantic efforts to undermine our health care system, Republicans dropped the ball on funding health care programs critical to the health of millions of children.”
“The situation is particularly dire here in Minnesota where the programs, which provide health care to thousands of children, are set to run out of money by the end of the month. Representatives Paulsen, Emmer, and Lewis, and their colleagues in the Republican-controlled House must make up for the time they wasted, do the right thing, and take immediate action to protect Minnesota kids.”
Without action from the House of Representatives, federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Community Health Center (CHC) Fund will expire September 30th. Millions of children and pregnant women nationwide, and thousands in Minnesota, depend on these programs for health insurance. The state health department sent a letter earlier this month warning that its CHIP funding would be exhausted on September 30 and it would have to take “extraordinary measures” to continue coverage in October.