This week, 18 million of the most vulnerable people in America will wait nervously to see if Republicans in Washington will axe their health coverage. I’m not talking about the repeal of Obamacare. Two other programs expire at the end of this week, and without their reauthorization, millions of impoverished children and the desperately poor will be cut off from the only source of health care coverage they could ever hope to obtain. It’s an example of how Obamacare has overwhelmed every other health care public policy issue, and the results could be catastrophic.

As of Monday morning, we’re still not sure that there will even be a Senate vote on the latest repeal effort, Cassidy-Graham. With two Republicans (Rand Paul and John McCain) firmly opposed and one more, Susan Collins, all but against it, there seems to be no path to the necessary 50 votes. Even Ted Cruz begged off on Sunday. But Republicans have backed themselves into such a corner with their base, promising repeal for seven years, that the leadership keeps plugging away. That’s likely to continue until the September 30 deadline under current reconciliation rules.

This uncertainty is toxic for other important measures that face the same deadline. As of last year, 8.9 million children, mostly those whose families earn less than 200 percent of the poverty line, get covered through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which also pays for thousands of births and postpartum care services for low-income pregnant women. CHIP operates like Medicaid, as a state-federal partnership, and federal funding must be reauthorized by the end of the month.

Children wouldn’t be cut off right away; it depends on how states manage their programs. But at least ten, including California and its two million enrollees, would see fairly immediate impacts, including enrollment freezes and a shortfall in paying for care. The Senate Finance Committee announced an agreement on a five-year extension last week, but with the Cassidy-Graham mess, it’s unclear if they’ll get the floor time to pass it. And the House hasn’t acted at all.

But that’s not all. Enhanced funding for thousands of community health centers, which have provided care for underserved communities since being established during Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, also faces a Saturday expiration date. Community health centers are the dirty little secret of the U.S. system—a safety net that looks as much like Britain’s National Health Service as anything. In most cases, anyone can enter a center for care, regardless of ability to pay or even immigration status. More than single payer, this is actually socialized medicine.