CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM (CHIP) EXPIRES

Posted over 6 years ago by Patricia Endsley

From Maine NASN Director Janis Hogan:

The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired September 30. It provided health care for 9,000,000 children and was not renewed by Congress.

ACTION: Call your congressional delegation and ask them to renew the CHIP program. Contact your U.S. senator and representative by phone at 1-866-327-8670 or by email through congress.gov.

CHIP has been a vital health insurance program for children and families since its bipartisan inception in 1997. CHIP finances health coverage for more than eight million children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to afford private health coverage.

CHIP was developed as a state-federal partnership that gives governors broad partnership flexibility to design programs for the needs of their child populations. As such, states need to know that these dollars will be available.

More than half of the nearly nine million children served by CHIP are eligible to receive services in school through their state Medicaid programs. Fifteen states exclusively use CHIP funds to extend their Medicaid programs, meaning all children who qualify for CHIP receive identical services and benefits as their traditional Medicaid-counterparts. In most states a substantial portion of children served by CHIP receive Medicaid services and benefits protections. Districts in these States bill Medicaid for health services they provide to CHIP eligible children. This funding stream is critical to ensuring that healthcare services can be delivered to eligible students in the school building.