Health Care: Here’s How Many New York Kids Are At Risk Because Of Congress

NEW YORK, NY – Nearly 9 million kids across the country rely on health insurance from CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Although it’s not controversial, Congress let its funding expire Oct. 1 — and many states may soon tell millions of families that their insurance plans are ending.

In New York, about 684,625 kids rely on CHIP for health insurance. For technical reasons, the funds didn’t immediately dry up for CHIP when it expired at the end of September, but state officials project that New York will run out of federal money for the program sometime between January and March 2018, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kids who would not otherwise be covered under Medicaid are eligible for CHIP. A family of four with an income greater than $33,000, for example, may not be eligible for Medicaid, but state programs will cover children through CHIP. These kids get access to vaccinations, doctors visits, emergency treatment, dental care and more at low or no cost.

(For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Some states may soon start sending notices to families that their insurance will lapse if Congress doesn’t fund the program.

"As a nation that takes care of our children, this is unacceptable," the bipartisan National Governors’ Association said in a statement. “Congress must not wait any longer to renew CHIP and act to stabilize the nation’s health insurance markets."

Many advocates for children and families pleaded with lawmakers not to let the program expire.

“Congress should have acted to extend CHIP funding months ago,” said Kelly Whitener from the Center for Children and Families, a policy outlet at Georgetown University. “States cannot turn their programs off and on like a switch, so absent funding certainty, they've had to make contingency plans to end their CHIP programs.”

In the decades since CHIP was enacted, the uninsured rate among kids has plunged. It covers children, as well as some pregnant women, who fall through the cracks between Medicaid and private insurance.

The Senate pushed a bill forward Wednesday that would extend the program for five years.
A similar attempt in the House, however, has faced more turbulence, as Republicans and Democrats disagree about how to pay for the program.

The New York Times reported that New Jersey Democrat Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. said these disagreements mean “more delay and possibly no action in Congress until the end of the year as part of an omnibus appropriations bill.”

Though not a part of Obamacare, CHIP became a victim of the partisan fight over repeal and replace. By the end of September, after all other attempts had faltered, Republicans tried and failed to pass the Graham-Cassidy bill to overhaul Obamacare, and in the process Congress let CHIP expire.

Story originally reported by Cody Fenwick

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images