Fox News
By: Kaitlyn Schallorn
Funding for a health insurance program for children has become front and center as lawmakers struggle to keep the government open. The federal funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired at the end of September, and a permanent solution has not been passed. As state funding for the program becomes increasingly closer to completely depleting, Congress has attached reauthorization to a temporary spending bill to avert a shutdown.
…
Joan Alker, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children & Families, said Congress should pass CHIP reauthorization as a standalone bill. “What’s especially frustrating is that there’s no disagreement on the policy,” Alker told Fox News, adding that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support funding CHIP. “It’s become a bargaining chip.” “The politics of what’s happening now with respect to CHIP have nothing to do with CHIP. The right thing to do would be to take CHIP out of this political fight and pass it by itself,” she said.
…
Read more here.
