Kids in many places across the country and whose families have low incomes will be without health insurance.
CHIP funding was allowed to expire on September 30, 2017 and, despite the fact that the program has bipartisan support, it still has not been renewed.
States have been doing what they could to compensate for the medical expenses without federal money.
Unfortunately, some states haven’t fared as well as others. Now, many of the 9 million children enrolled in the program, as well as pregnant mothers and babies born over the next while risk being without health insurance coverage as CHIP funding runs out.
This appears to be the case even though Congress had been expected to maintain the program’s operations until at least the end of March, according to federal health officials. Some states could see their financial resources run dry for children’s health insurance coverage by the end of this month. Congress added $2.85 billion to give a boost to the program, but those funds might have certain states hanging in the only until January 19, said a statement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The agency has yet to specify which individual states will be running out of CHIP funding first.
“The funding … should carry all the states through January 19th based upon best estimates of state expenditures to date,” said Johnathan Monroe, a spokesperson for CMS. “However, due to a number of variables relating to state expenditure rates and reporting, we are unable to say with certainty whether there is enough funding for every state to continue its CHIP program through March 31, 2018.”
The most recent federal funding estimates are that it won’t be long before certain states run out of money for their Children’s Health Insurance Programs and force those states to stop enrollment and let parents know that there is a risk that their entire programs could shut down.
Connecticut has already cautioned parents that its HUSKY B version of CHIP will not be able to continue past February 28. The state had intended to come to a sudden halt in January, but when Congress provided the additional CHIP funding, it made it possible for the state to keep things going for another month.
