CHIPs: 9 Million Reasons We Need It!

The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding expired on October 1st. The program has now gone for a month without being extended. States are on the clock, and at least six states expect to run out of funding money by the end of the year.

Some states can keep covering kids through their Medicaid programs, though they will have to find the money to cover them. Other states may send children to the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces to buy coverage. But the hard reality is that some number of these very young Americans will become uninsured if CHIP is not extended before states run out of funding.

Throughout the rural south, tens of thousands of families no longer have to worry about how to pay for a doctor visit for their sick children. And tens of thousands of youngsters are healthier because of the program. Now this is life-line for these children is at risk.

The gridlock in Congress has created the perfect storm for kids to lose coverage - and 9 million children in our country are waiting for the final word. In order to extend CHIPS, Congress needs to find about $8 billion in savings. All the while, there is the tax reform plan which is scheduled to reduce taxes by multiples of that number. Something is wrong in our country when a tax break is more important than healthy children.

What's particularly maddening is the two parties don't actually disagree about CHIP itself. The fight is over Obamacare, Tax Cuts, and Entitlements.

States have been unequivocal about the need for steady financing in order to avert coverage interruptions. In the face of continued financial instability, their agencies may need to cease enrollment and freeze coverage — and therefore access to care — for children already enrolled (along with some 370,000 pregnant women also covered through CHIP).

Now, four weeks after the deadline, there is still no resolution in sight to get this program that covers 9 million of America's children funded again.