That’s an annual income of about $27,000 to almost $41,000 for a family of three in Arizona.
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A separate analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows Colorado would exhaust its federal funding in February of next year if Congress doesn’t act. But in 10 states the federal government covers 100 percent of the funding for the program. And that encompasses roughly 7,000 children, who the state is receiving that higher match amount.
Reports suggest that even if CHIP expires this week, most states will have enough funding to continue the program on a short-term basis.
And Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, was unimpressed by arguments that Arizona has been the only state without a CHIP program.
“As a result of its reliability and effectiveness, CHIP has consistently enjoyed strong bipartisan support”, the letter says, noting that since the program started the percentage of uninsured children nationwide has dropped “from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 6.6 percent in 2016”.
“90,000 CO children & pregnant women count on #CHIP”.
How much did it cost families?
“It’s basically a safety net for working families for health insurance for their children”.
That means as many as 9 million children could steadily lose their health insurance coverage in the upcoming months – and the longer Congress delays, the worse the situation will get. South Plains Food Bank CEO David Weaver estimated the end of the program could affect up to 400,000 children living in Texas.
While a reauthorization bill for CHIP already exists ― a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Republican senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Democratic senator Ron Wyden of OR ― it was introduced just days prior to the rollout of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill. A spokesperson for his office said the senator continues to support the program. About 19,000 children are in the state’s CHIP program, state officials say.
While some states will run out of program for the funding by the end of 2017, Dan Sullivan with Enroll Virginia said the commonwealth has enough money on reserve to last a few more months.
EW: What’s your sense of the politics? The renewal deadline was September 30.
HO: I don’t necessarily think that it’s a no-brainer. Funds have lapsed due to congressional issues that must be fixed soon. We’re certainly not taking anything for granted.
“We’re still holding out hope for a bipartisan deal”, Hand said Monday afternoon. We also recognize that Congress has been intent in moving on to tax reform. Significant differences between the two bills, including how to fund CHIP moving forward, remain. “But the House Republican decision to prioritize politics right now – of all times – is irresponsible and out of touch to a new extreme”.
“The state share is 10 percent of the program now, pretty quickly we’d run out of that money”, she said.
However, a New Jersey state human services agency spokeswoman said benefits for Garden State children should be covered until sometime this spring. “They don’t get the hepatitis that they used to”, said Dr. Zamora, who runs a family clinic in east Austin. And virtually all states budgeted for CHIP dollars that are now in limbo.
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That’s if Congress doesn’t act immediately.
