HHS rolls the numbers as shutdown looms for US government

The odds are that parts of the U.S. government will shut down at midnight, as Senate Democrats refuse to support a clean continuing resolution already passed by the House and Republicans reject Democratic demands to reinstate pandemic-era subsidies to cover ever-increasing Affordable Care Act insurance premiums. What will be shuttered if neither side yields are activities funded by annual appropriations that are not excepted by law. Generally, that would mean the staff assigned to those activities would be furloughed for the duration of the shutdown. But this time, some of those staff are at risk of termination. The impact at the Department of…