University of Miami Pediatrician Dr. Gwen Wurm does a checkup on Christina Brownlee, 5, at the University of Miami Pediatric clinic October 3, 2007 in Miami, Florida. (Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
Since the inauguration of President Trump, health care has been front and center in American politics. Yet, attention has almost exclusively been focused on the Affordable Care Act, most recently in the form of Graham-Cassidy. With Congress preoccupied with a series of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, little attention has been paid to a long-running bipartisan program providing insurance coverage to millions of American children: the Children’s Health Insurance Program, often referred to simply as CHIP, which provides coverage to nine million American children.
Since its creation by a bipartisan coalition under the Clinton administration, CHIP has been crucial for the health and well-being of millions of American children, their families and their communities.
Yet funding for CHIP is running out at the end of September, leaving both state governments and families with great uncertainty. On September 18, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced an agreement to continue funding for the program, albeit at greater costs to the states because it would phase out the additional funding provided by the ACA. Yet, the renewed efforts by Republicans to repeal the ACA could derail this agreement.
What Is CHIP?
Today, CHIP serves about nine million children at a cost just below US$14 billion. Together with Medicaid, it serves as the source of insurance for more than 46 million children annually. CHIP has been crucial in ensuring that more than 95 percent of American children are covered by health insurance today. This compares to 89 percent at the time the program was created.
Like most other health care programs, CHIP is a collaborative program between the federal government and the states. Indeed, states have the option to use the…