Is the children's health insurance program still funded?

  

Is the children's health insurance program still funded?

It's a beautiful morning in Pittsburgh, but Ariel Haughton is stressed. She was worried that her young children's health insurance would run out soon.

"So we're like a lower-middle class family, right?" she says. 'I am learning. My husband works, and our insurance is now 12 percent of our income - just for my husband and I. And that's not good insurance either. A policy that covers a spouse costs a lot even to see a doctor, and it carries a high deductible for further treatment.

In contrast, her young children - 2-year-old Nonnie and her older sister Rose - are now covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a state program established two decades ago to ensure that children whose parents no 'don't have much money, but still earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, can still get health care. Currently, coverage for these children does not burden the family. But the Pennsylvania CHIP program is expected to run out of funding in February. Although 9 million children in the US receive their health insurance through CHIP, Congress allowed the program to expire on September 30.

Since then, states have used up the money left in their CHIP accounts, and parents, doctors, and state officials are wondering whether Congress will make it through a traditionally popular program with strong bipartisan support.

"CHIP is probably one of the most successful government programs we've run in decades," said Timothy McBride, professor of health economics at the University of Washington at St. Louis and chair of the state's Medicaid oversight committee, which also oversees CHIP.

Keeping kids insured doesn't cost much, he says, and it definitely pays off.

"It's very important," he said, "because it's development work — it's a vaccine. You know it can lower a person's chances of having a chronic disease for life." The experience of Ariel Haughton's daughter, Rose, confirms this. Haughton says his own insurance charges $150 for each of his doctor visits, but his children's policy doesn't. This way he could catch Rose and Nonnie when they needed him.

"That's no small matter for a family like mine," Haughton said. “One hundred and fifty dollars. When you have to pay for that, you wonder, 'Are they sick enough? Is this worth seeing a doctor?' "

Several years ago, Rose had a fever and a rash on her face. It didn't look serious, but Haughton took Rose to the pediatrician anyway, just to have her checked. "The doctor saw him and he said, 'He has Lyme disease,'" Haughton recalled. "And he found fleas!"

Doctors immediately gave Rose antibiotics and the little girl's symptoms disappeared. If left untreated, Lyme can turn into chronic arthritis or other chronic problems. “I knew if I had to pay $150, I would think, 'You know, let's wait,'” Haughton said. dr. Todd Wolynn is a Haughtons pediatrician. He said families across Pittsburgh were concerned about the lack of funding for the federal insurance program.

"Parents really tell us they don't know what to do," Wolynn says. "They make too much to get Medicaid and they don't have jobs or they don't make enough money to get commercial insurance. I don't know what to say to them." Doctors and patients across the country are concerned that CHIP's money is running out in one state after another.

Utah has announced that CHIP will expire at the end of January if Congress does not receive funding for the program. The West Virginia CHIP Board voted on February 28 to end the program. Colorado sent a letter to the CHIP family saying that without new funding, the program would be discontinued at the end of January.

Oregon has run out of federal money and is borrowing from the Medicaid budget to ensure 80,000 CHIP children maintain their coverage through April. "I am completely against denying this vulnerable family access to health care," Oregon Governor Kate Brown said. "It is shocking to me that Congress is not taking action and is not doing its job on this issue."

Measures to fund the program were passed in their respective committees in the House and Senate in October, but then ran into trouble when lawmakers were unable to agree on another cut to pay for CHIP.

Ariel Haughton said lawmakers should address this issue. “They could have done something in August or July and agreed to it in September,” he says, “rather than throwing money away and playing this game of chicken with our children's health insurance plans.”

Lawmakers and staff in Congress say CHIP funding is likely to be included in the year-end spending bill. But as of now, no CHIP financing accounts are planned for consideration.