WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a five-year extension of a children’s health insurance program that provides coverage to 219,000 children in Ohio, but the bill is headed toward a direct collision with a bipartisan version in the Senate.

Although the measure cleared the House by a vote of 242 to 174 Friday, all but three House Democrats opposed the measure because they argued the GOP was using children’s health to chip away at the 2010 health-care law known as Obamacare.

It now heads to the Senate where lawmakers are working on an entirely different approach to re-authorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, often called CHIP.

The House bill would pay for extending CHIP by cutting $10.5 billion from a program created by Obamacare that helps finance improvements in the public health system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now receives a large chunk of money from that program.

In addition, the bill increases Medicare premiums for the wealthiest seniors.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, who voted against the bill, assailed the proposal, charging that Republicans “recklessly let funding” for children’s health expire at the end of September “for no other reason than their own dysfunction.”

"The Republicans own this disaster, and I’m disheartened that they see the need to make children suffer in order to bail themselves out of it,” Ryan said.

Republicans Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township, Jim Jordan of Urbana, Bill Johnson of Marietta, Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington, Mike Turner of Dayton and Bob Gibbs of Lakeville supported it, while Ryan and Democrats Joyce Beatty of Jefferson Township, Marcia Fudge of Cleveland and Marcy Kaptur of Toledo opposed the measure.

Beatty complained the children's health program "has fallen prey to partisan politics, and many children and families will suffer as a result. Instead of forcing draconian cuts on community health programs that help at-risk Americans and countless working families in exchange for CHIP funding, Congress needs to focus on providing all Americans access to affordable, high-quality health care.”

With the backing of Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. Rob Portman, the Senate Finance Committee last month approved its $9 billion version that would guarantee children in Ohio keep their coverage through 2019. But the Senate bill does not cut other programs to pay for their version.

Brown said, “We shouldn’t be pitting Ohio seniors against Ohio kids. That’s why Senator Portman and I, and our colleagues on the finance committee, voted for a bipartisan bill that takes care of children and their families without hurting seniors.”

Portman last month called CHIP “vital” for Ohio, adding that the state’s Medicaid director warned that Ohio was “going to deplete our CHIP funding by the end of this calendar year” without additional money.

CHIP was created by Republicans and Democrats and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 as a way to reduce the number of low-income children without health insurance.

jtorry@dispatch.com

@jacktorry1

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