230,960 New Jersey Kids Could Soon Lose Health Insurance

Nearly 9 million kids across the country rely on health insurance from CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Although it’s not a controversial program, Congress let its funding expire Oct. 1 — and many states may soon tell millions of families that their insurance plans are ending.

In New Jersey, about 230,960 kids rely on CHIP for health insurance. For technical reasons, the funds didn’t immediately dry up for CHIP when it expired at the end of September, but state officials project that New Jersey will run out of federal money for the program by July 2018, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation.

New Jersey Democrat Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. blamed the delay on Congress's attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, noting that CHIP helps support the ACA. He called the Republican majority's decision to let the program expire "outrageous."

"If the ACA continues to be sabotaged, it will inevitably hurt CHIP and Community Health Centers," Pallone said in a statement.

CHIP may have become a victim of the partisan fight over repeal and replace. By the end of September, after all other attempts had faltered, Republicans tried to pass the Graham-Cassidy bill to overhaul Obamacare, saying the existing CHIP program would help support those who lost insurance.

When Graham-Cassidy failed, however, Congress let CHIP expire.

State Sen. Nia H. Gill, D-Essex/Passaic said CHIP "has proven successful in reducing the number of children who are uninsured nationwide, and is a vital part of New Jersey’s efforts to ensure that all children have access to health care."

The program, she said helps fund anything from doctor’s and dentist's visits to prescription medications and emergency room coverage.

“The expiration of this program is an astounding failure by Congress that eliminates critical health care funding for children, the effects of which will be felt in states across this country over the coming months and in New Jersey early next year," she said in a statement.

Kids who would not otherwise be covered under Medicaid are eligible for CHIP. A family of four with an income greater than $33,000, for example, may not be eligible for Medicaid, but state programs will cover children through CHIP. These kids get access to vaccinations, doctors visits, emergency treatment, dental care and more at low or no cost.

Some states may soon start sending notices to families that their insurance will lapse if Congress doesn’t fund the program.

"As a nation that takes care of our children, this is unacceptable," the bipartisan National Governors’ Association said in a statement. “Congress must not wait any longer to renew CHIP and act to stabilize the nation’s health insurance markets."

Many advocates for children and families pleaded with lawmakers not to let the program expire.

“Congress should have acted to extend CHIP funding months ago,” said Kelly Whitener from the Center for Children and Families, a policy outlet at Georgetown University. “States cannot turn their programs off and on like a switch, so absent funding certainty, they've had to make contingency plans to end their CHIP programs.”

In the decades since CHIP was enacted, the uninsured rate among kids has plunged. It covers children, as well as some pregnant women, who fall through the cracks between Medicaid and private insurance.

The Senate pushed a bill forward Wednesday that would extend the program for five years.
A similar attempt in the House, however, has faced more turbulence, as Republicans and Democrats disagree about how to pay for the program.

Pallone told Congress recently these disagreements mean “more delay and possibly no action in Congress until the end of the year as part of an omnibus appropriations bill.”

Patch file photo