January 16, 2015
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester,
A report released Friday found that 14,000 kids in Arizona lost their insurance when the state canceled its health insurance program for low-income children at the beginning of 2014.
Arizona is the only state without a Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); the programs provide insurance to low-income children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. The report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families examines what happened when the state froze, redesigned and ultimately ended the program Jan. 31.
[…]
Elisabeth Wright Burak, the study’s author, noted that federal funding for the CHIP program is set to expire Sept. 30 unless Congress votes to continue it. She wrote, “The state’s recent history with CHIP offers a glimpse of what could happen in other states if CHIP funding is left to sunset or is not extended early enough in the budget cycle for states to continue covering children without disruption.”
Read more here here
