What Every Policy Maker Needs to Know about the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – A Refresher
August 3, 2017 Elisabeth Wright Burak Right now, children, families and states face grave uncertainty about CHIP’s future, since no new federal funds will be available after September without Congressional action. Because we’ve all been mired in the Medicaid debate, it’s a good time to remind lawmakers about CHIP and its importance to kids. In turn, we are refreshing our CHIP resources and education materials. CHIP was created I997 to help states provide affordable coverage to uninsured children in middle-income families who didn’t qualify for Medicaid but for whom private coverage was out of reach. Our updated “ About CHIP page “(also as PDF primer ) provides more of the basics. Here are the top things lawmakers and child health stakeholders need to know. CHIP is a federally funded, state-administered block grant that serves nearly 9 million children during the course of a year. CHIP allows states to offer coverage to children at higher income levels that d