Despite Decade Of Funding, CHIP Funding Cliff Remains So Congress Will Still Have To Find Offsets

Although Congress reauthorized the Children's Health Insurance Program for a decade, children’s advocates said Republicans retained the so-called funding cliff, which means lawmakers will have to negotiate offsets again when it comes time to renew CHIP. Congress raised the CHIP spending baseline by $10 billion, which will lower the amount of offsets needed, but advocates said the baseline assumes that income-eligibility for the parents of CHIP kids will be at 200 percent of poverty, and the current median eligibility level...