GOP Christmas gift to pregnant women: Canceled health care for their babies

Numerous states are warning that enrollment for the popular, bipartisan health program will freeze in a matter of weeks, meaning low-income families all over America will lose access to their pediatricians.

But in Colorado, according to Public News Service, children are not the only ones whose coverage is in danger. Tens of thousands of pregnant women are about to lose maternity care for themselves and their future babies.

“If we don’t have a federal guarantee that financing for this program is going to continue, families are going to get letters letting them know that their coverage is ending, that they need to find new coverage,” said Erin Miller, vice president of health initiatives with the Colorado Children’s Campaign.

Unless funding is restored, some 90,000 women and children will lose their coverage, with pregnant women due in February losing coverage before their children are even born.

Republicans let federal funding for CHIP lapse at the end of September. They could have renewed the program at any time before or since then, but have pushed it to the back burner, amid their failed push to repeal Obamacare and their successful push to raise taxes on the middle class to give themselves huge tax breaks.

House and Senate Republicans are both working on bills to restore CHIP, but neither one will be passed this year, and the House version pays for it by cutting Medicare.

In a cruel twist, since September, the House also found time to consider two separate bills to ban abortion. But restoring health care for expectant mothers is apparently at the bottom of their priorities.

Republicans gave their wealthy donors a huge Christmas present with their tax scam. But for pregnant women, there is nothing in their sack.