What Does the Election Mean for the Future of Children’s Coverage?

As the dust settles on this year’s mid-terms and talking heads work to define its meaning, it naturally left many in the child health world wondering: What now for kids coverage, notably CHIP and Medicaid??

It’s hard to answer this, of course, without some distance from the noise and posturing about what the election means. As I heard a number of colleagues say last week, it’s a good time to take a step back and – through our new post-election lens— consider the conceivable opportunities and roadblocks ahead that are precipitated by the need to extend CHIP funding before October 2015. Many of us are working to learn more about the possible paths for extending CHIP funding in the lame duck session as well as the new Congress. And it’s equally (if not more!) important to take time now to anticipate proposed policy changes that could accompany a CHIP funding extension, both in CHIP as well as Medicaid, and weigh their relative merits.

Children’s coverage, and CHIP in particular, has a decades-long history of bipartisan support. CHIP is a very popular program and a source of pride for governors and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Yet as CCF’s report released last week shows, momentum covering kids is beginning to slow—if CHIP funding is not extended, this trend gets much worse, reversing our nation’s historic success. Fundamentally, without new funding to preserve a program that has and continues to be successful for kids, as many as 2 million additional kids could join the ranks of the uninsured. No party wins points if millions of kids lose coverage on their watch by ending or fundamentally altering a popular program that has helped working families’ financial security and peace of mind for nearly two decades.

Swift action to extend funding for CHIP without divisive restrictions or changes would be an early victory for compromise between Congress and the Administration. It’s a chance for lawmakers to demonstrate their stated commitment to reaching across the aisle and taking proactive action on something that should easily transcend politics and party divisions: our children’s future.

(For more on our post-election contemplations, see Joan’s blog here.)

Elisabeth Wright Burak is a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families.

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