Update on Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Hello Members,

Here is an update on what's happening in the House. The House brought its Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) bill to the floor on November 3.  The House version is called the CHAMPION Act, the "Community Health and Medical Professionals Improve Our Nation," H.R. 3922, which also includes community health centers, in addition to CHIP.

The House bill also provided an offset or "pay for" from the Prevention and Public Health Fund (Prevention Fund). The Prevention Fund provides grants from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to every state and as well the District of Columbia and territories to fund prevention, disease prevention and chronic disease. 

While CHIP itself has broad bipartisan support, using the Prevention Fund to pay for CHIP, which was part of the foundation of the ACA, does not.  The House bill should pass this legislation on a party-line vote.  However this version of CHIP is not expected to be taken up in the Senate (they passed their own version) because it will not get support from the minority party.

The Senate marked-up the "Keeping Kids' Insurance Dependable and Secure Act," the KIDS Act, S. 1827, which was a clean authorization, without offsets.

Please stay tuned as we wait for the Senate to act.
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Piper Largent BA
Director of Government Affairs
National Association of School Nurses