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Congress letting CHIP expire - over 9 MILLION KIDS will be impacted

States prepare to shut down children’s health programs if Congress doesn’t act

The program, which is credited with helping to bring the rate of uninsured children to a record low of 4.5 percent, has been reauthorized several times over the years. And under the ACA, the federal government sharply boosted its match rate. It now provides 88 percent or more of every state’s CHIP costs.

Congress has been unable to agree on how to pay for the $15 billion program moving forward, however. President Trump’s 2018 budget proposed to cut billions from CHIP over two years and limit eligibility for federal matching funds.
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Some states operate CHIP as an independent program and would have to shut theirs down if federal dollars dry up. In Virginia, resources are expected to be exhausted by late January. Nablo said she has no choice but to send notices Dec. 1 to the families of the 66,000 children and 1,100 pregnant women in the state who are covered.

“We don’t want to act too fast if Congress is going to restore this, but we also want to give families enough time,” she said. “We have kids in the middle of cancer treatment, pregnant women in the middle of prenatal care.”
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CHIP has become a political issue in the gubernatorial race in Maryland, where funding would run out in March. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has pressed for Congress to pass a reauthorization. A potential Democratic opponent, Ben Jealous, has criticized him for not having a backup plan to protect the 140,000 children who would be left uninsured.
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Alabama to freeze enrollment in children's health program in two weeks

Announcements like this, and the letters going out to families notifying them that their children's insurance funding will be cut off at a certain date, are just a terrible look as the Republicans are putting all their focus on cutting taxes for corporations and themselves. Doug Jones appeared to run hard on CHIP (even encouraged lawmakers to get it passed in his victory speech.) Hopefully his race made some realize the possible political implications. (McConnell tweeted yesterday about how we must get CHIP funding passed. If only he knew someone who could do something about it.)
 
Today's GOP is exactly as bad as liberals have painted them. soulless money-grubbers sitting in Country Clubs and private jets laughing at the poor and middle class schleps out there sweating it out every day.
 
 
CBO slashes cost estimate for CHIP financing

In a letter sent Friday to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the CBO said that financing the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would cost $800 million over the next 10 years — far lower than analysts' original estimate of $8.2 billion.
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One reason why the program's budget impact has shrunk, CBO Director Keith Hall said in the letter to Hatch, is because of a provision in the recently signed tax bill eliminating the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance.

Hall said that because eliminating the mandate is expected to raise the government's cost to subsidize people purchasing exchange insurance plans, extending CHIP funding could encourage parents to get insurance for their children through that program instead of through exchanges.
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Republicans made the difference between CHIP and no-CHIP much smaller by passing their tax bill, which will increase the cost of subsidizing healthcare for low income people through the exchanges.
 
This type of shit is why I left the Republican Party. CHIP expired in September. Now Republicans are trying to place blame on Democrats.

 
As per the usual these days, politicians are tone deaf assholes.
800 million for ten years to provide healthcare to kids, not a big issue. Come on people
 
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