As of Sept. 29 Congress Still Hasn’t Funded CHIP


Funding For HealthCare for About 9 Million Kids is About to Expire

As of Sept. 29 2017 Congress has yet to fund CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program that covers about 9 million kids). CHIP expires Sept. 30, 2017.[1]

In other words, while Congress found the time to try to repeal and replace the ACA via the budget process multiple times this year, they haven’t found the time to ensure coverage continues for about 9 million children from lower income families.

Congress has to authorize funding periodically for CHIP to ensure the program has the funding to keep running (the program itself must also be reauthorized in 2019). If Congress fails to fund CHIP, children won’t loose their coverage immediately. However, current funds will be exhausted in 2018 and this could effectively result in millions of children being dropped from their coverage.

UPDATE: Congress failed to fund CHIP on time. They also failed to fund Community Health Centers. This means 1,400 Community Health Centers and coverage for 9 million children are in jeopardy.[2]

NOTE: The reason Congress hasn’t funded CHIP is unclear, although one would assume it is because it is part of Medicaid. Republicans want to defund Medicaid, and that means defunding CHIP to some extent. Senators who have addressed the issue include Orrin Hatch (R-UT), you can see his plan here (it unsurprisingly involves defunding Medicaid).

ADVICE: Contact your Senator today and tell them to fund CHIP.

Article Citations
  1. 9 million kids get insurance through CHIP. Congress is about to let its funding expire. September 30 is the deadline. Updated by Dylan [email protected]@vox.com Sep 27, 2017, 12:50pm EDT
  2. Funding hangs in limbo for the nation’s 1,400 community health centers

Author: Thomas DeMichele

Thomas DeMichele is the head writer and founder of ObamaCareFacts.com, FactsOnMedicare.com, and other websites. He has been in the health insurance and healthcare information field since 2012. ObamaCareFacts.com is a...

Leave a comment

We'll never share your email with anyone else.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

I thought that the ACA was the law of the land. By not doing what they are suppose to do, aren’t they in face breaking the law?

Reply
ObamaCareFacts is a free informational site. It's privately owned, and is not owned, operated, or endorsed by the US federal government or state governments. Our contributors have over a decade of experience writing about health insurance. However, we do not offer professional official legal, tax, or medical advice. See: Legal Information and Cookie Policy. For more on our company, learn About ObamaCareFacts.com or Contact us.