CHIP Funding May Not Be Renewed Until January 2018

According to Axios, Congress may not take up legislation to fund CHIP until January because it has not identified sources of funding for the program – partly because it has not had the time to do so amidst tax reform negotiations. However, it will authorize temporary funding so the states can continue to fund their programs pending long-term funding. States are using remaining funding for 2017 at different rates – Oregon ran out of funding and is borrowing from its Medicaid budget to fund its CHIP program until April 2018, while Pennsylvania still has funding until February. Other states, such as Colorado and Utah, are planning on ending their programs in January if funding is not renewed. Additional state deadlines are mentioned here.

ANCOR’s lobbyists have warned against alarm at this point, stating that it is premature to be concerned about the CHIP bill being delayed at this point because of the broad bipartisan agreement surrounding the issue.