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

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

In Tennessee, 105,990 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. State officials have not reported when Tennessee will run out of federal money for the program, 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 the family’s children through CHIP. These kids get access to vaccinations, doctors visits, emergency treatment, dental care and more at low or no cost that could otherwise bankrupt the family.

(For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

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.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images