On the Chopping Block, CHIP Finally Gets a Headline
One of the more curious aspects of the months-long debate over health care reform has been the inattention that the media has given the Children’s Health
Jul 31, 202014.7K Shares702.9K Views
One of the more curious aspects of the months-long debate over health care reform has been the inattention that the media has given the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Roughly two years ago, when the Democrats’ plans to expand CHIP were twice metby President George W. Bush’s veto pen, the saga made headlinesnationwide. Yet in this debate, despite the House’s proposal to terminateCHIP at the end of 2013 — and despite the concernsof children’s welfare advocates that such a move could drop millions of kids from coverage — there’s been hardly a peep in the press.
Today, that changed, as The New York Times picks upthe issue just in time for the informal negotiationsto smooth out the wrinkles between the House and Senate bills. (The Senate bill would reauthorize CHIP through 2019 and fund it through 2015.)
“„Unlike many of the issues facing Senate and House negotiators, the question of what to do with CHIP is not just a cerebral policy point. In recent years, states have made huge strides in covering children, particularly those in low- and moderate-income families, and experts say those gains could be put at risk.
“„“Attention must be paid to the possibility that some children who lose CHIP coverage could fall through the cracks and become uninsured,” Genevieve M. Kenney and Allison Cook wrote last month in a brief prepared for the Urban Institute, the Washington research group.
Although House leaders have argued the advantages of getting entire families covered under one health plan, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is vowing to fight his lower-chamber colleagues to salvage the CHIP program. We should know this month which side prevails.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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