As state legislatures work to finalize their state budgets for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1 in most states, they are still uncertain about whether or not CHIP will be fully funded by Congress. A new report by Edwin Park at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorites explains the dilemma facing states.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts recently unveiled a draft proposal to extend federal funding for CHIP, which otherwise has no federal funding for state CHIP programs starting next year. Unlike legislation from Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Gene Green that would provide federal CHIP funding for the next four years and largely continue existing policies, the Hatch-Upton-Pitts draft proposes a series of major changes to CHIP. According to the CBPP report, the Hatch-Upton-Pitts proposal would:
- Likely cause substantial numbers of low- and moderate-income children on CHIP today to become uninsured or to lose access to needed care and face higher out-of-pocket costs
- Require states to bear a greater share of the cost of their CHIP programs
- Eliminate tools and federal financial support that help states enroll more eligible children
- Make CHIP more complicated and harder to enroll in
- Place states at greater risk of federal funding shortfalls under CHIP
For more information, please see the full CBPP report.