This is a new level of evil.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ss-just-let-it-expire/?utm_term=.d79f79098d7e
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ss-just-let-it-expire/?utm_term=.d79f79098d7e
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.