Those of us in the child health world know an important topic for the coming year is the future of CHIP and whether funding will be extended beyond September 2015. We at CCF are convinced it is necessary for CHIP to remain strong and stable alongside Medicaid for the foreseeable future to maintain our nation’s significant gains in children’s coverage. While ultimately many think it makes sense for families to be covered together in the marketplace, if CHIP were to go away as many as 2 million children may lose affordable coverage due to the ACA’s unfortunate “family glitch.” And affordability and benefits in the new marketplaces for children are not as strong as in CHIP.

Now the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), established by CHIPRA to make recommendations to Congress, has weighed in on CHIP’s future. In its June report released today, Commissioners recognized the work necessary to first ensure children’s coverage options are affordable and to provide comprehensive benefits children need to grow into healthy adults; only then can we consider whether or not CHIP is still needed to fill in the gaps between Medicaid and marketplace coverage in the future.  With its recommendation for an initial two-year extension of funding (which would cost an estimated $0-5 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office), Chair Diane Rowland made it clear in her cover letter that more time may be necessary:

Key issues regarding the affordability and adequacy of children’s coverage must be addressed, or additional transitional funding may be necessary.

The report’s recommended two-year extension of CHIP funding should be viewed as the minimum length of time needed to address the affordability and quality of pediatric coverage available through the marketplaces. Implementing health reform, one of the largest domestic policy changes in decades, is no easy task and bumps along the way come with the territory. It’s hard to imagine a longer transition period won’t be necessary to do right by our nation’s children.