August 2014
This week, Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to continue funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program through 2019. The program is currently scheduled to run out of funding in September 2015.
The legislation, the CHIP Extension and Improvement Act of 2014, H.R. 5364, provides funding for CHIP through 2019, reduces enrollment administrative burdens for states and beneficiaries and aims to increase CHIP enrollment among eligible children. Similar legislation to fund the program through 2019 is being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), S. 2461.
The CHIP program provides health insurance coverage to over 8 million children across the U.S. CHIP coverage provides more child-specific services and less cost-sharing that most insurance plans offered through federal or state health insurance exchanges.
