“We’re concerned that Congress is playing with fire with this issue. It seems like it’s becoming a pawn in the greater tax reform bill. That seems very unwise for these children and their parents.” — Rick Ward, Georgia chapter director, American Academy of Pediatrics
Funding for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as most Americans are aware, expired at the end of September. Lawmakers of both parties reportedly agree — in principle — that CHIP funding should be renewed for another five years, but the debate is about where that funding should come from. “Principle” in politics isn’t necessarily an oxymoron, but it’s frequently defined (and too often negated) by partisan considerations.
Which leaves roughly 9 million American children in health care limbo, including about 130,000 covered — for now — by Georgia’s PeachCare program and 80,000 by Alabama’s All Kids program. Georgia was getting about $400 million a year in CHIP funding, Alabama about $198 million. CHIP supports state programs that provide health insurance for children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little for private insurance.
Some states are already running out of money, Georgia Health News reported, and “some large states are warning families they may not be able to rely on CHIP for much longer.” Some states with unspent federal money, GHN reports, have shared it with states running on empty; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has redistributed some $1.2 billion since October.
The Georgia Department of Community Health said Monday that at the current rate, PeachCare will be depleted in March. But GHN reported an email from a department spokeswoman that said the state could “run out by January.”
Congress is not expected to address the issue of renewing CHIP funding until January — which is cutting things frighteningly close for millions of children and their families.
For instance, according to the New York Times, Colorado has begun warning CHIP-assisted families that there is “no guarantee” the program will be renewed, and they should begin looking to the most viable private alternatives. In Texas, the Times reported, there is a CHIP “termination timeline” under which families could get notices of children’s health insurance cancellation beginning Dec. 22.
Merry Christmas.
Other states reportedly are considering alternatives such as temporary enrollment cutoffs or even suspending their programs entirely.
If our well-compensated temp workers on Capitol Hill still recognize what we used to quaintly call a “moral imperative,” surely this would qualify as one.
The Axios news website reported that House GOP sources are committed to maintaining temporary support for CHIP until the real discussions over long-term funding get under way next year. Let’s hope that’s the case.
If Dr. Ward of the American Academy of Pediatrics should be proven right, as quoted above, and health insurance for children of the working poor becomes a casualty in a political squabble over tax breaks, our political dysfunction has truly degenerated from gridlock to depravity.