Summary
This past Saturday marked three weeks since federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired. In recent weeks, committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate have advanced legislation to reauthorize the program for five years, though the process has stalled, primarily in the House, over partisan disagreement on how the package should be paid for.
While federal CHIP reauthorization deliberations remain at a stalemate, states operating on their unused FY 2017 CHIP allotments – one third of which they are required to return to the federal government – are scrambling to establish contingency plans as budget shortfalls begin to occur. This brief update provides a look at the currents status of state CHIP programs and an outlook on year-end legislative action to reauthorize the program.