The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to reauthorize ahealth insurance program for low-income children, sending the legislation tothe Senate.

The bill would reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program for fiveyears, after which Congress will have to reconsider it. It passedthe House by a vote of 242-174 on Friday.

CHIP covers children from low-income families under Medicaideven if their parents don’t qualify for the state-federal healthinsurance program themselves. It has enjoyed largely bipartisansupport since it was enacted in 1997, and covers about 8 millionU.S. children, according to the House Committee on Energy andCommerce.

The proposal will also extend funding for community healthcenters and several other health programs.

It’s funded by taking money from the Prevention and PublicHealth Fund, a program under the Affordable Care Act that financespublic health efforts and tries to improve quality of care. It alsolimits federal subsidies to Medicare beneficiaries making more than$500,000.

Along with the reauthorization of the CHIP program, the billwould provide $1 billion for the Medicaid programs in Puerto Ricoand the U.S. Virgin Islands, which have run short of funding. Italso ends some cuts to payments to hospitals that treat a largershare of patients without health insurance or who have troublepaying their bills.

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