Rockefeller Plans Hearing To Examine CHIP Reauthorization

Senate Finance health subcommittee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) plans to hold a hearing next Tuesday ( Sept. 16) on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is slated to lose funding in September 2015 if Congress does not act. Children's advocates have urged Congress to start looking into extending CHIP funding as soon as possible, but congressional sources expect most of the debate on the issue will happen next year.

Rockefeller, a longtime advocate for CHIP and Medicaid, has already introduced legislation that would fund CHIP through 2019; Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) sponsored a similar bill in the House.

Bipartisan leaders of the Senate and House committees of jurisdiction also have asked state governors to weigh in, requesting that they answer questions about how CHIP works in their states by Oct. 31.

“Almost two decades ago, when I worked with my colleagues to create CHIP, nearly one-fourth of the nation’s children did not have health care,” Rockefeller said in an emailed statement. “Today, less than 10 percent of children are uninsured. Of course, with any of our kids going without care, it is essential that CHIP continue and be able to build on its success of enrolling uninsured kids and giving them access to the care they need.”

The Affordable Care Act re-authorized the Children's Health Insurance Program until 2019, but only funded it through fiscal year 2015. Congress at the time envisioned that after 2015 states would transition CHIP-eligible children into qualified health plans with special certification -- or possibly wrap those children into Medicaid. But children's advocates and other stakeholders worry that QHPs offer children less comprehensive coverage than CHIP, and that other polices -- including the “families glitch,” which blocks some families from receiving exchange subsidies -- could result in fewer children covered.

Witnesses for the upcoming hearing include: First Focus President Bruce Lesley; American Academy of Pediatrics President James Perrin; American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin; and Cathy Caldwell, director of the Bureau of Children's Health Insurance for Alabama's Department of Health.

-- Amy Lotven