Yesterday, the West Virginia CHIP Board reckoned with the stark reality of the consequences of Congressional inaction on CHIP. Faced with running out of federal funds in March, the Board determined that available funding will only cover children through February. The board plans to notify families in early January that the program will close on February 28, 2018 unless Congress acts. In a statement on its website, the Board noted: “We regret the frustration this may cause you and we are hopeful that Congress will approve funding by the end of this year.”
As we noted in our recent report on the consequences of delayed Congressional action on CHIP, states cannot wait until the month they exhaust funds to close their programs. Although West Virginia acknowledged that it will run out of funds in March, there will not be adequate funding to provide coverage for the full month of March. Considering that most CHIP programs rely on managed care organizations that require a full month’s payment in advance, states like Virginia and West Virginia must take action in the month prior to when they run of out federal funds.
Although determining when states will run out of funds is a moving target, in a recent update on the status of CHIP funding, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) reflects that four states will exhaust federal funding in the next seven weeks. But as winter sets in, things will start to snowball quickly and a whopping 27 states will likely face a funding crisis in the first quarter that will leave children out in the cold and have a chilling effect on the nation’s success in covering 95 percent of children. This means more states will soon be announcing how they plan to deal with Congressional inaction on CHIP funding.
West Virginia follows in the steps of Colorado and Virginia, which plan to notify CHIP families in late November or early December that coverage will end on January 31, 2018. Virginia also plans to close enrollment to new eligible children as of January 1, 2018. Utah has submitted a state plan amendment to “eliminate CHIP eligibility and services due to lack of federal funding.”
How many states have to take action before Congress acts? How many families have to deal with the stress that their children could soon become uninsured as they scramble to explore alternative options that may be unaffordable? Promises from Washington that CHIP will get done are simply not good enough for states to wait. It’s time for Congress to act before more damage is done.
