Talking Points Memo

By: Alice Ollstein

Over the weekend, Congress allowed funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers nearly 9 million children in low-income families, to lapse—failing to pass a reauthorization by Saturday’s deadline after spending most of the year attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

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Joan Alker, the executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and an expert on CHIP, told TPM that the severity depends on how long lawmakers drag their feet. “If Congress can get it done in the next couple weeks, we could avoid some of the worst consequences,” she said. “It’s hard to disentangle what the consequences will be, but we will certainly start seeing them in November.”

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