Arizona Republicans Deny CHIP to Children and Parents

Arizona Fails Mankind By Denying 30,000 Children Health Insurance

Arizona has denied 30,000 children health insurance by refusing to fund CHIP (KidsCare). The program has been defunded since 2010. This is the latest example of politicians choosing special corporate interests and political ideology over human life. It may be defensible to not want to fund every assistance program, but denying kids CHIP is about as low as it gets.

“The KidsCare Office is unable to approve any new applications. Enrollment in the KidsCare Program has been frozen since January 1, 2010 due to lack of funding for the program.” KidsCare – Arizona’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

The GOP in Arizona (or at least those who side with Andy Biggs) claimed that Medicaid already covers kids, but that is A LIE (Medicaid and CHIP are joint-funded with the Federal Government, so any politician has access to the reports and knows kids are going without coverage).

The truth is families making less than 133% of the poverty level have access to Medicaid, but CHIP typically extends up into the 200% FPL range, if not higher for children and parents. This is because they are LITTLE KIDS, they aren’t old enough to “get a job” like the out-of-touch GOP in Arizona who confuse fundraising and taking away healthcare as “a job”.

To be fair, AZ did expand Medicaid (which other states have refused to do, which creates the Medicaid Gap). Also, to be fair, not every Republican in AZ has the same “interests”. In this case, those who do, overshadow the conversation.

Read more from Tuscon.com Steller: KidsCare debacle shows that AZ makes no sense. There is nothing I can say that isn’t better expressed by those on the ground floor.

“KidsCare, Arizona’s version of the national Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), costs the state nothing, allowing us to use federal tax money to provide health insurance to children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but are still relatively poor. We’re talking about the working poor — people who truly do just need a hand up.”