CHIP
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Short-Term Fix is Not Enough to Reassure Children and Families CHIP is Secure
Congress created a crisis when it failed to meet the deadline to extend CHIP funding on September 30, and they have been kicking the can down the road ever since. Their neglect has left states trying to hold their CHIP programs together as best they can under very difficult circumstances, while holding out hope that…
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New 50-state Report: Medicaid/CHIP Crucial for Infants and Toddlers and Their Parents
As we wait with bated breath to see whether Congress will pass a long-term CHIP funding extension before the holidays, a timely new report serves as a good reminder of importance of Medicaid and CHIP for our nation’s youngest children and their parents—and the very real possibilities that the gifts of this coverage could be taken…
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If Congress Fails to Fund CHIP Before Holidays, Children Likely to Lose Coverage in New Year
Funding for CHIP expired on September 30th of this year. Despite bipartisan agreement in both the House and the Senate on a five year extension of CHIP, Congress has still not managed to get the job done. CHIP is a block grant program, which means that unlike Medicaid, Congress must act to ensure that it gets…
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Senator-Elect Doug Jones Calls on Senate to Pass CHIP Funding
Jim Carnes is the Policy Director of the Arise Citizens’ Policy Project. Alabama voters are accustomed to the hot glare of national media attention, but not the warm glow. Doug Jones’ stunning upset victory over Roy Moore for Jeff Sessions’ U. S. Senate seat has cast our state in the most favorable light many of us…
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Will Congress Leave Children Out in the Cold?
The first snow fell in Washington this past weekend. As I felt the chill in the air, I thought about the millions of children who get their health coverage under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For many of these children, the mercury is about to plummet. Federal CHIP funding expired September 30, but here…
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What Does the Continuing Resolution Mean for CHIP?
I wish I could say that the Continuing Resolution (CR) passed yesterday by the House and Senate extended CHIP funding for five more years as both parties in both chambers have agreed to do, but sadly, it does not. The main mission of the CR is to avoid a government shutdown, at least for the…
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No Set Federal Notice Period for CHIP – States Decide How Much Notice to Give Families Losing Coverage
According to a new brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation, at least five states (Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, and Utah) plan to end coverage for children enrolled in separate CHIP programs by January 31, 2017. One of those states (Colorado) has started to notify families that their children may lose coverage if Congress does not…
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Editorial Boards Continue Calling for Action on CHIP
Newspaper editorial boards have been keeping up the steady drumbeat in their call for Congress to renew CHIP, which expired September 30. In Maine, the Bangor Daily News questioned “Republican priorities” in an editorial published December 8. Holding up funding for children’s health while searching for an offset would be especially cruel as Republican lawmakers…
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Congressional Leaders Signal They Intend to Kick the Can Down the Road on CHIP
It appears that Congress is planning to kick the can further down the road rather than finally approve the bipartisan plan to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program this week. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Walden has signaled that he wants to allow CMS to shift unused CHIP funding (currently reserved for states that are…
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Want kids to get preventive health care? Make sure their parents have health coverage.
If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that we can’t take success covering children for granted. A lapse in CHIP funding (ahem!) or cuts to Medicaid could easily put our nation back in a place where rates of uninsured kids reverse course. But even as we work to keep the coverage we have, we also…
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This Thanksgiving I Am Grateful For My Child’s Health Insurance
It has been a long year here in Washington with many threats, twists, and turns for those who rely on publicly funded health coverage for their families – that is 40 percent of all children in the United States. In my role here at the Center for Children and Families, I often speak with reporters…
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Report: Children in Rural Communities More Likely to Rely on CHIP and Medicaid
The challenges that students face in many rural places are staggering. Limited access to advanced coursework, medical care, food, and employment opportunities continue to daunt students in many rural communities. Poverty rates are also climbing. In 23 states, a majority of rural students live in low-income households; this is a noticeable uptick from 2013 when…
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Kaiser Tracking Poll Shows CHIP Funding is Much Higher Priority than Tax Reform
The Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll was released today and it has good news for those who care about children’s health. While children’s advocates may feel that their messages about the need to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has not been getting through, this poll shows somebody has been listening to…
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CMS Guidance Increases Urgency for Congress to Extend CHIP Funding
Last week, the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) released an informational bulletin with guidance for states in the event they exhaust remaining CHIP funds before Congress acts. This is just another sign of how perilously close we are to seeing children’s coverage disrupted. And even if Washington can be counted on to eventually…
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West Virginia CHIP Board Votes to End CHIP on February 28 if Congress Fails to Fund CHIP in Time
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…
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Reporting on FY 2016 Child Core Set Includes Key Developmental Screening Measure
State voluntary reporting for FY 2016 of the Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures is now available on Medicaid.gov. As it has done for the past two cycles, CMS provides a helpful downloadable dataset of state reporting. Fifty states reported at least one measure, with 45 reporting at least half of the 26…
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House Votes to Extend CHIP Funding Without Bipartisan Agreement on Offsets
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding along with other health care provisions in the Championing Healthy Kids Act (wait for it…the Community Health and Medicaid Professionals Improve Our Nation, Increase National Gains, and Help Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance…
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CHIP Funding Delays Risk Enrollment Freezes that would Reverse Success on Kid’s Health Coverage
Last week we released a new report on the consequences of delayed Congressional action on CHIP. Federal funding for CHIP expired 32 days ago, an unprecedented lapse in CHIP’s 20-year history. States are quickly running out of federal funding, with Arizona, Minnesota, and Oregon slated to exhaust federal funds before the end of December. If…
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Why Projecting When States Will Run Out of CHIP Funds is a Moving Target
This week we released a new report on the consequences of delayed Congressional action on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Federal funding for CHIP expired 27 days ago, an unprecedented lapse in CHIP’s 20-year history. Some policymakers have reasoned that the situation is not urgent because all states have some unspent funds available from…
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What are the Consequences of Congressional Inaction on CHIP?
Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired 26 days ago and Congress still hasn’t acted. I have been working on CHIP since its inception, and this is unprecedented! Today we are releasing a report that unpacks some of the implications of Congressional inaction beyond the beltway. We didn’t survey all 50 states but…
