Va. Dems, GOP blame each other of CHIP gamesmanship

Gov. Kate Brown visited Eugene Pediatric Associates on Wednesday and met with families to talk about funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Plan. The health of the country depends upon how the needs of its people are addressed as a community.

In Georgia, the CHIP program is PeachCare for Kids.

The state’s CHIP board voted last month to shut down the program february 28 if Congress doesn’t allocate funding. The last authorization expired on September 30.

John Hickenlooper rallied a bipartisan band of governors again on Tuesday in a letter to Congress urging the renewal of a children’s health insurance program for low-income families. Recently, Senator Orrin Hatch said, “The reason CHIP is having trouble is that we don’t have money anymore”.

The program is funded by both states and the federal government, but it is state-administered, meaning each state sets their own guidelines on eligibility and services. Alabama will send out similar letters later this month. Long-term funding CHIP now remains in limbo while Republicans and Democrats continue to negotiate a compromise government funding bill; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised to block any government funding legislation that does not include amnesty for Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens.

A few years ago, Rose came down with a fever and a rash on her face. This is especially true for those who fall into the so-called “family glitch”, which bars working parents with employer-sponsored coverage for themselves from getting Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, subsidies for their children. “And she found a little tick!” She’s anxious her young children’s health insurance coverage will soon lapse. “So it’s a shame”.

Health insurance for kids is in flux.

The problem with CHIP comes down to how to pay for it.

Wietecha estimates the cost at around $15 billion for a five-year extension of CHIP. While states pay for a portion of the costs, the federal government picks up a much bigger share. “Merry Christmas, right?” Kimmel’s comments comes while states warn that for the first time in the history of the program, the program may run out of funding resulting in 1.2 million children losing coverage and becoming uninsured.

Lawmakers and staffers in Congress say CHIP funding will likely be included in an end-of-year spending bill.

“Using it as a bargaining lever in broader debates is simply not acceptable and it puts the health of Kentucky kids on the line”, Brooks said. Tax cuts for the rich, but no health care for poor children?

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. “I don’t know what to tell them to do”.

The governors said funding the program “without disruption” is something they can all agree on.