Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program at risk
The red flag is being waved and it's going up for something that affects area children.
The Children's Health Insurance Program is in jeopardy of losing a majority of its funding and that's bad news for about 6 million children across the country.
83,000 children in Delaware are covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, a program that brings relief to families.
"CHIP covers families with children now the families have a lower income they're above the Medicaid threshold, but you know they may have just a lower income, they may be working class and they want to have health insurance for their children," says Jill Fredel of Delaware's Dept. of Health and Social Services.
CHIP which is both federally and state funded provides that access to care essential for children.
"For children you think of all the preventative care that they undergo of course in their lives the illnesses, the ear infections, and the asthma and broken legs."
According to DHSS, as of September 30th, the federal funds needed to keep CHIP going expired.
A huge concern for many states, especially Delaware since they won't be able to cover those funds if not reauthorized after January.
"The total cost of covering those children is about 30 million dollars. In Delaware, the state is responsible for about 9 percent of those costs or about $2.9 million so the federal government covers the bulk of that," explains Fredel.
Although, it's not just a concern for Delaware. In a press conference Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia acknowledged that he is also concerned about CHIP funding.
"Virginia is faced with that difficult choice that if they don't know if CHIP will be reauthorized they have some legal obligation to begin notifying families about the possible expiration of health insurance," says Kaine.
Congress still has the chance to reauthorize the program's funding in the next couple weeks. If they do we're told there will be no interruptions to those using the CHIP program.
