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Steep divisions remain, not just along party lines but between the House and Senate. House conservatives support the defense bill and don't want extra spending provisions beyond the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program and federally qualified health centers. But the plan they've laid out to pay for CHIP and health centers is meeting stiff opposition from Democrats. House Republicans want to fund the five-year CHIP reauthorization with money from the Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund and higher Medicare Advantage premiums for wealthy people. This bitter fight over the so-called pay-fors has kept CHIP in limbo for months. Funding for Medicare programs that are crucial for rural hospitals and money to help battle the opioid crisis also hang in the balance. And, at deadline, it still wasn't clear what was going to happen with ACA cost-sharing reduction payments for insurers. (Meyer, Weinstock and Luthi, 12/16)

Federal officials have given a health insurance program for low-income Texas children a short-term funding boost to extend the kids’ coverage through February, the Texas Health and Human Services commission said Friday. The Children’s Health Insurance Program will receive nearly $136 million from the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, executive commissioner Charles Smith said in a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott. (Wang, 12/16)

Texas law bars officials from using state funds to pay for the program if there are no federal dollars in place. If the state runs out of money, it will send all CHIP recipients to the federal government’s health care marketplace. ... In response to a news article about the one-month extension, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said in a tweet that funding was imminent.“Congress will pass a long term CHIP bill next week,” Cornyn said in a tweet. (Matos, 12/15)

Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said in a statement that “the children who benefit from this program should never have been put in a position where they might lose care.” “The written assurances from the administration will provide some short-term certainty for the program, and that’s important,” Straus said. “But the need for Congress to act quickly has not diminished, and I hope Congress will reauthorize the program soon in order to provide the longer-term certainty that working families in Texas need.” (Evans, 12/15)

Gov. Wolf signed a bill Friday reauthorizing Pennsylvania’s participation in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The bigger worry, however, remains with Congress, which has yet to renew this largely federally funded program that provides health care for nearly 9 million low-income and special-needs children, as well as more than 370,000 pregnant women nationwide.  Pennsylvania’s CHIP program is projected to run out of money by the end of January if federal lawmakers fail to act soon. “Congress needs to do its part and reauthorize CHIP at the federal level,” said Wolf. “Without federal funding, more than 180,000 children in Pennsylvania could be without health care in early 2018.” (Giordano, 12/15)

With the holiday season in full swing and a million other things likely on their minds, 68,000 Virginia families will receive, or have already received, a letter warning them that by the end of January, their children might not have health insurance. That is because, for nearly three months, an effort to reauthorize a 20-year-old bill that has always been supported by both sides of the aisle has been neglected. (O'Connor, 12/17)

Letters are going out this weekend telling families that 17,000 children and teenagers across the state will lose their health coverage on Jan. 31 unless Congress acts. Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, ended on Sept. 30 because Congress didn’t authorize continuation of the program by the fall deadline. (Rigg, 12/15)