2. Seniors can keep seeing the doctor. As with Medicaid, Medicare has funding sources that don’t depend on Congress passing annual spending bills. Beneficiaries shouldn’t much feel the effects of a shutdown, unless it is prolonged. Medicare will continue to reimburse medical providers, so coverage should continue without interruption.

3. Premium subsidies continue for Obamacare enrollees, and the marketplaces remain open for those qualifying to sign up off-season. Like Medicare and Medicaid benefits, marketplace subsidies are considered mandatory spending. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can use leftover fees paid by health insurers to keep verifying eligibility so enrollments can continue.

4. The Food and Drug Administration continues drug reviews. That’s because these reviews are paid for by fees from the pharmaceutical industry. Staffers who analyze and review medicines entering the United States would also be considered essential, according to HHS.

5. The nation’s 1,400 community health centers stay open. These clinics — which provide preventive care and dental services to about 27 million low-income Americans — also enjoy mandatory spending status. But they’re threatened by an underlying problem: The program has needed reauthorization by Congress since last fall, and it’s unclear whether lawmakers will include that in a spending bill reopening the government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2018/01/22/the-health-202-how-the-government-shutdown-could-affect-your-health-care-or-not/5a625a1030fb0469e884025b/?utm_term=.3ddcae3ed25d

First, you need 60 votes to end debate on the bill, and second, you need 51 votes to pass it. So Republicans, who have 51 senators, need at least nine Democrats in order to start debate on the bill. 

The last time the government shut down was in October 2013 for 16 days in a showdown over Obamacare funding. That time around, about 850,000 federal workers, or about 40 percent of all federal nonmilitary employees, received furloughs. 

"As a reminder, there are federal workers who "are still awaiting financial compensation for damages sustained during the 2013 government shutdown." https://t.co/ehC7EWTtT3 

 

And there's your fun shutdown fact of the day. 

— Shawna Thomas (@Shawna) January 20, 2018