{"id":7361,"date":"2017-10-06T18:16:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T18:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7361"},"modified":"2017-10-06T18:16:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T18:16:40","slug":"chip-funding-at-risk-as-gop-pushes-another-aca-repeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7361","title":{"rendered":"CHIP Funding at Risk as GOP Pushes Another ACA Repeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Funding<\/a>

Funding for the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program, which covers almost 400,000 children in Texas, is being held up in Congress pending the passage of an Obamacare repeal. Photo: FatCamera\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Children\u2019s advocates are concerned that health insurance for almost\u00a0400,000 children in Texas<\/a>\u00a0is being held prisoner by partisan politics.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans, making a last ditch effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act, have put re-authorization of the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, on hold until their repeal measure passes.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bresette, executive director of Children\u2019s Defense Fund \u2013 Texas, points out that CHIP must be reauthorized by the end of this month to avoid a lapse in coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were moving along on a process that looked like a good five-year extension of CHIP, and then everything has been put on hold, essentially, to try and pressure people into voting for some sort of crazy return to repeal,\u201d he states. \u201cIt just feels like one of the best programs is being held hostage to this political process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bresette says most children who receive CHIP coverage are from working class families that are too poor to buy insurance on the open market, but make too much to qualify for Medicaid.<\/p>\n

He adds that CHIP, combined with the Medicaid program, helped Texas ensure that more than 90 percent of Texas children had health coverage in 2015, a 10 percent increase over 2008.<\/p>\n

Bresette says the loss of \u2013 or even a delay in \u2013 CHIP funding could cause major hardships for children and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterruptions in that kind of stable care and oversight of these kids\u2019 health are really problematic,\u201d he stresses. \u201cYou see kids losing appointments, delaying time to get, maybe, asthma treatments, or things being identified. So, we know any interruption would have a direct impact on children\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bresette says historically, CHIP has had strong bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things about the CHIP program is that it has been stable, and has been basically a bipartisan-supported program,\u201d he points out. \u201cStates love it. Great for families, doctors love it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, I think it\u2019s a symptom of the current penchant for putting this kind of political fight in front of what\u2019s best, particularly for the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without a re-authorization, officials say Texas CHIP would run out of funding by February 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Children\u2019s advocates are concerned that health insurance for almost\u00a0400,000 children in Texas\u00a0is being held prisoner by partisan politics. Senate Republicans, making a last ditch effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act, have put re-authorization of the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, on hold until their repeal measure passes. Patrick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7362,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions\/7362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}