My fellow child health policy friends know that CHIP and I share the February 4th anniversary date– mine for my wedding eight years ago, CHIP’s for its reauthorization in 2009. Just as each life and marriage face unexpected opportunities and challenges along the road, CHIP has faced its own twists and turns since its launch in 1997 and reauthorization five years ago. I like to think of myself as a partner getting better with age and experience on the path (and let’s all just assume here for sake of argument that my spouse agrees). Likewise, CHIP, fueled by bipartisan leadership and its vital partner Medicaid, has only improved on the road to covering all kids.

Of course, Medicaid deserves the credit for paving the original path to kids’ coverage in the 1980s. CHIP, in turn, helped step up the pace, spreading coverage gains for kids from coast to coast. In 2009, CHIPRA recognized that to do the most good for the greatest number of kids it was critical to take on the full landscape of coverage for low-income kids. Its passage five years ago continued and improved CHIP, certainly, but also reinforced Medicaid’s foundational role in covering millions of low-income children across the country by raising the bar for excellence in reaching uninsured kids.

CHIPRA gave states the resources, tools, and even financial incentives to reach more uninsured kids up and down the income scale by making more kids eligible, cutting red tape for families, and—as an added bonus—making government work more efficiently.  Twenty-seven states have received more then $1 billion in CHIPRA performance bonuses since 2009 for reaching uninsured Medicaid-eligible kids.  CHIPRA emphasized and funded targeted outreach efforts for hard-to-reach kids and asked states to focus more attention on quality by creating a core set of quality measures for kids and testing new approaches to care. These investments and tools paid off in more ways than one—participation rates among eligible-but-unenrolled kids in Medicaid/CHIP are at all time highs.  New numbers released today from HHS show that in 2012, 88% of kids eligible for these programs were enrolled, up 6% since 2008.  And well over half the states exceeded this national participation average.

Of course, in five short years the landscape of children’s coverage has changed tremendously, with the ACA adding more roads for families on the path to coverage.  As we celebrate CHIPRA’s many successes for Medicaid and CHIP, children’s advocates are taking stock.  In a post-ACA world, we are fortunate to have multiple paths to coverage available for nearly all Americans, including parents of these children who have benefitted from Medicaid and CHIP.  From 30,000 feet it may seem redundant to have separate coverage paths (CHIP and marketplace plans) for kids and adults, even in the same family, not covered by Medicaid.

But for now, we at CCF remain more convinced than ever that CHIP must be continued, given its pivotal role in our nation’s success in reducing the number of uninsured kids to historic lows. Why? Because it has taken many years for CHIP and Medicaid to get to this level of success, and early experience implementing ACA underscores that it will take some time to make it work seamlessly for families.

And CHIP is designed expressly for kids.  The many refinements over time to both Medicaid and CHIP focused attention and policymaking squarely on the needs of children. We think it is likely that when state decision makers choose benefits with kids exclusively in mind, they often make different— and better— choices than if they are considering a broader group of consumers, as with essential health benefits. And the unintended “family glitch” makes CHIP even more essential to prevent the real possibility that nearly 2 million kids will lose access to their only affordable coverage option if funding sunsets in 2015. Arizona is already testing the question of how families will fare without CHIP. A few days ago, the state rolled back its KidCare II program. (Stay tuned for CCF’s upcoming look at affordability in KidCare II vs. marketplace plans later this month.)

CHIP and Medicaid have proven time and time again that public investments can be successful. For decades now, they have dramatically decreased the number and rate of uninsured kids while also providing peace of mind and financial security for their parents, especially during the most recent recession. As we work to keep improving marketplace enrollment and coverage, let’s continue the smart investment in CHIPRA. Rather than losing ground on children’s coverage, we can help ACA marketplaces catch up. Medicaid and CHIP should continue to light the path toward coverage for all families, just as they have been paving the way in children’s coverage for decades now.

So tonight I’ll toast my marriage, which gets better by the year, and then I’ll raise a glass to CHIPRA: Here’s to another five-plus years of success covering kids.