As we have blogged before we were hoping that CMS was going to prohibit states operating separate state CHIP program from imposing waiting periods for children. But they didn’t, and the choice continues to fall squarely in the state’s purview. Last week we learned that two more states, Nevada and West Virginia, are now moving forward to eliminate their CHIP waiting period.

“We are really happy that West Virginia children will no longer be exposed to a gap in coverage.  All the concerns about “crowd out” turned out to be unfounded,” said Renate Pore, longtime child health advocate with West Virginians for Affordable Health Care.

Waiting periods for CHIP coverage (a.k.a. forced periods of uninsurance for kids) have never been good for kids’ health in our view, and, as Renate says, there is little evidence to suggest that they have achieved their objective of preventing employers from dropping coverage for families. But now with the advent of new marketplaces and premium tax credits come January 1, 2014, CHIP waiting periods will add a whole new level of bureaucratic complexity for states and confusion for families. So the time is now for states with waiting periods (37 in all) to look at this issue again.

A handful of states have eliminated waiting periods in the past year or are moving to do so — including Colorado, New Hampshire, Maryland, Washington and Vermont. Now West Virginia (current wait time = 3 months) and Nevada  (6 months) are taking steps to do the same. Let’s hope that more states jump on this bandwagon.