Congress Passes Short-Term Patch For CHIP Funding But Punts On Long-Term Solution

The New York Times: Congress Passes Stopgap Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown Against A Friday Deadline
Congress gave final approval on Thursday to legislation to keep the government funded into January, averting a government shutdown this weekend but kicking fights over issues like immigration, surveillance and health care into the new year. The stopgap spending bill extends government funding until Jan. 19 while also providing a short-term funding fix for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, whose financing lapsed at the end of September. (Kaplan, 12/21)

The Hill: GOP Includes $2.8B For Children's Health-Care Funding In Stopgap Bill 
House Republicans have included $2.85 billion to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in a stopgap spending measure intended to prevent a government shutdown on Saturday. The funding provides money for CHIP through the end of March as the GOP faces criticism from Democrats, who argued Republicans were prepared to leave town without extending a program that provides support for 9 million children across the country. (Roubein, 12/21)

Politico: Children's Health Funding Hangs In The Balance As Congress Leaves Town
Congress is likely to depart Washington this week approving just enough money for children’s health insurance through March and leaving families and governors wondering what's next. Only days after clearing a massive tax reform bill along party lines, Republicans are still trying to figure out how to keep the government open past Friday, with hopes of including funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers roughly 9 million low- and middle-income kids. So far, Republican and Democratic sources say they don’t expect to be able to attach more than six months of CHIP funding, with three of those months retroactive to when Congress let funding lapse, on Sept. 30. (Haberkorn and Pradhan, 12/21)

Bloomberg: Poor Kids' Health Program Still In Limbo After Yet Another Patch 
“You can’t run an insurance program this way,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Lawmakers are forcing health officials who run the program “to go month-to-month.” (Edney and Rausch, 12/21)

The Associated Press: Children's Insurance Program Receives Only Patchwork Funding
Democrats and Republicans agree that finances for the Children's Health Insurance Program should be renewed for five years, but they've clashed over how to pay for it. And while few think Congress would blunder into letting the money completely lapse — which no lawmaker would care to defend with elections approaching — an effort to provide long-term money collapsed as leaders punted a bunch of unresolved issues until early next year. (Fram, 12/22)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Punts CHIP To 2018 As States Reach Panic Mode 
The two leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, which earlier this year agreed to fund CHIP for five years, voiced opposition to the stopgap. "We share a commitment to extend full funding for CHIP as soon as possible," said Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (Ore.) a joint statement on Thursday afternoon. "In our view, a long-term, five-year extension of the KIDS Act is essential to providing certainty for families and states. While the proposed short-term patch offers some funding relief, it falls short of providing families and states the certainty they need." (Luthi, 12/21)

The Associated Press: How States Coping With Uncertainty Over Kids' Health Money
Examples of how states have been reacting to the threat of running out of federal money for the Children's Health Insurance Program. It was unclear how their plans might change with the short-term federal funds Congress approved Thursday. (12/22)

The Hill: States Say Short-Term Funding Not Enough For Children’s Health 
State governments are warning that the short-term funding for a critical children’s health program approved by Congress on Thursday may be too little and too late. Warning letters in at least three states have already been sent to families saying they could soon lose coverage for their children come Jan. 31 without new funding from Congress. Even if the new funding keeps their programs afloat, it sends a negative message to enrollees and that could cause long-term implications, experts say. (Roubein and Sullivan, 12/22)

CQ: Senators, Advocates React To Limited CHIP Funding In Stopgap Bill
A state official said the injection of funds is welcome, although a longer-term fix is needed. "Obviously, we would rather have a permanent long-term funding solution than a short-term CHIP funding bill but short-term would allow us to keep running the program as usual and not freeze enrollment January 1 or disenroll children February 1," said Cathy Caldwell, director of the Bureau of Children's Health Insurance at the Alabama Department of Public Health, in an email to CQ. Another state official confirmed temporary funds would prevent immediate action to shut down the program. “A short-term funding solution would delay implementation of the contingency plan we have in place should we exhaust the reallocated federal funding,” said Heidi Capriotti, public information officer for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona's Medicaid agency. (Raman, 12/21)

Denver Post: Colorado Lawmakers Approve Using State Money To Keep Health Insurance Program For Kids Running
Colorado lawmakers on Thursday approved emergency funds to keep alive a health insurance program for children and pregnant women, amid concerns that a short-term extension of the program’s funding OK’d by Congress won’t arrive soon enough to help. In a unanimous vote, members of the Joint Budget Committee approved spending $9.6 million of state funds to run the Children’s Health Plan Plus program for an extra month, if necessary. The vote means ominous end-of-coverage letters that Colorado had planned to send next week to more than 75,000 kids and pregnant women covered by the program won’t go out. (Ingold, 12/21)

WBUR: Thousands Of Alabama Children Could Soon Lose Health Insurance
Alabama is first state to announce a freeze in enrollment for the state's Children's Health Insurance Program, because Congress has not yet authorized additional funding for CHIP. (Greene, 12/21)