NPR

By: Selena Simmons-Duffin

When parts of the federal government ground to halt this past weekend, Linda Nablo, who oversees the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Virginia, had two letters drafted and ready to go out to the families of 68,000 children insured through the program, depending on what happened. One said the federal government had failed to extend CHIP after funding expired in September and the stopgap funding had run out. The program would be shutting down and families would lose their insurance. The other letter said they didn’t need to worry anymore because federal funding had finally come through and the program’s future was assured.

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Alker is happy with the CHIP deal Congress passed. She does point out it’s the same one they agreed on in September, so she’s not sure why it took a shutdown to finally get it through. The deal keeps the federal investment in the program at its current level for two fiscal years. After that, the amount that states have to pay for the program will increase. “At least states now have time to plan for that,” Alker said. “Overall, it really was a fair and reasonable compromise.” She is puzzled, though, as to why it was only a six-year extension when the Congressional Budget Office estimated extending CHIP for 10 years would save the federal government $6 billion.