The Children’s Health Insurance Program has long been a bipartisan one. Until Republicans got focused on taking health coverage away from tens of millions of children and adults with Trumpcare, that is. Now, CHIP’s health care for 9 million children is in danger—its funding continues until September 30, but if new funding isn’t going to come through, states need to start planning now.
"Certainty and predictability [are] important," agrees Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. "If we don't know that the money is going to be there, we have to start planning to dismantle things early, and that has a real human toll."
In a March letter urging prompt action, the Medicaid directors noted that while the end of September might seem far off, "as the program nears the end of its congressional funding, states will be required to notify current CHIP beneficiaries of the termination of their coverage. This process may be required to begin as early as July in some states." [...]
"We've just achieved a historic level in coverage of kids," [Joan Alker of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families] says, referring to a new report finding that more than 93 percent of eligible U.S. children now have health insurance under CHIP. "Now all three legs of that coverage stool — CHIP, Medicaid and ACA — are up for grabs."
Whether Republicans just don’t get their act together on a low priority or whether they intentionally take CHIP hostage, failure to renew its funding—now—could put millions of kids’ health at risk, and potentially bust their families’ budgets as parents scramble to get coverage for children who had been insured through the program.
It’s yet another case where Republicans could seriously damage voters’ opinions of them, but no decent person can root for that because it would involve hurting so many people first.