CHIP is Getting Funded… After a Long Wait

The Senate seems to have reached a deal on a budget bill, part of the deal includes passing a funding bill for CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) to extend the program an additional six years.

Congress let long-term funding for CHIP lapse 114 days ago. The problem was that the parties could not agree on a bill to fund CHIP. Democrats wanted a clean bill that only funded CHIP, Republicans wanted to add in items like cuts to Medicaid.

This resulted in no funding bill was passed for months on end. In that time states started to run out of federal funding for the program. If that continued Children’s healthcare was going to be on the line.

Then, after months of no funding, Republicans attempted to use CHIP as a bargaining chip in a budget deal (DACA has a similar story).

Luckily, after a short government shut down, both parties have come together and brokered a deal that seems to include passing a clean CHIP bill. This means millions of Children across the country will avoid having to go without healthcare as states will have the funding they need to keep the state-based Children’s Health Insurance programs running.

The bill is expected to fund CHIP for an additional six years.

For more information, see VOX’s CHIP is finally getting funded — after 114 days without a budget The Children’s Health Insurance Program may be out of the congressional budget fight for several years.