What’s CHIP Got to Do With It?
Children in United States receive their health insurance from multiple sources: the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance, or a qualified health plan on the Marketplace. This creates a fragmented system of coverage for children and families, particularly for low- and moderate-income families, who often have children and parents enrolled in across separate coverage sources.
With CHIP funding scheduled to expire on September 30, 2017, the future of children’s coverage will be up for debate again. Proposals have called for an extension of CHIP funding. However, as Katie Weider and Rodney Whitlock of ML Strategies discuss in their latest Health Affairs blog, it is time for us to stop talking about CHIP, and instead start talking about integrating the myriad of children’s coverage sources. That blog is available here.