On Monday, President Trump signed legislation extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years as part of the continuing resolution passed earlier in the day by Congress. This extension will ensure access to a range of pediatric services — from preventative visits to life-saving treatments — for millions of children in working families.
This is especially good news for health care organizations like Texas Children’s. More 71,000 of our patients are covered by the program.
“Since 1997, CHIP has provided essential health care to children of working families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private health insurance,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace. “Texas embraced this program in 1999 and has seen it help improve the lives of millions of Texas children. This extension will continue to ensure strong, stable funding for state CHIP programs and the children and families it supports.”
The budget for CHIP ended on September 30 without lawmakers having reauthorized it as they had done intermittently several times within the past two decades since the program’s inception. The spending bill that the Senate and House adopted Monday provides six years of federal money for CHIP to fund coverage for nearly 9 million children and 375,000 pregnant women across the U.S. More than 430,000 children in Texas are covered by CHIP.
Before Congress created CHIP 20 years ago, 14 percent of American children simply went without health insurance. Nationally, the number of uninsured kids has been cut in half since Congress created CHIP.
“CHIP plays a critical role in health care coverage for kids,” Wallace said. “It has dramatically reduced the number of kids without health insurance, and it has given so many families access to the right care at the right time for their children. Monday’s legislation provides peace of mind, and that’s a win for our children.”