CHIP Will Not Be Reauthorized Until At Least March

In a recent press release, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)—members of the Senate HELP Committee—revealed that Congress will not take legislative action on reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) until March, 2018.

“Rather than considering a broad year-end funding agreement as we expected, it has become clear that Congress will only be able to pass another short-term extension to prevent a government shutdown and to continue a few essential programs,” the Senators wrote in a joint statement.  “Instead, we will offer it after the first of the year when the Senate will consider the omnibus spending bill, the Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization, funding for Community Health Centers, and other legislation that was to have been enacted this week.”

The short-term extension that Senators Alexander and Collins referenced in their statement refers to a bill passed by Congress that allocated $2.85 billion for CHIP funding through March 31, 2018. The short-term emergency funding passed in early December expired on December 22. 

However, recent reports indicate that without a funding extension, Alabama will cease health care coverage for 7000 children in the state covered under the “ALL Kids” CHIP program and halt enrollment for 2018. 

“ If Congress does not act soon, coverage for active ALL Kids enrollees will be terminated effective February 1, 2018, regardless of the “Good Thru Date” on their ALL Kids insurance card,” the Alabama Department of Health stated on its website.

The CMS also recently announced that without additional funding some states will run out of CHIP funding on January 19, 2018, despite the recently passed extension. CMS did not say which states will be impacted first. 

“Some states will begin exhausting all available funding earlier than others,” a CMS official said. “But the exact timing of when states will exhaust their funding is a moving target.”

—David Costill