The Senate Finance Committee today approved by voice vote legislation to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program through fiscal year 2022. Under the KIDS Act (S. 1827), the program’s federal matching rate would remain at 23% through FY 2019, change to 11.5% for FY 2020 and return to a traditional CHIP matching rate for FYs 2021 and 2022. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is marking up a similar bill this afternoon. In addition, the House bill would delay the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts for FY 2018, but add two more years of cuts for 2026 and 2027; and would provide $1 billion in Medicaid funding to Puerto Rico. Offsets in the House bill include changes to Medicaid third party liability and treatment of lottery winnings and other lump-sum income for purposes of income eligibility under Medicaid, as well as adjustments to Medicare Part B and Part D premium subsidies for higher-income individuals. CHIP covers 8.9 million children with family incomes above Medicaid eligibility limits who lack access to affordable private coverage. While the program is authorized through Oct. 1, 2019, legislative action is needed to reauthorize funding, which expired Sept. 30.

Related News Articles

Headline
An AHA blog published Sept. 16 highlights programs and practices by Boston Medical Center leaders and staff that support residents’ mental health, emotional…
Headline
Susan Doherty, AHA’s vice president of field engagement, and Rebecca Chickey, AHA’s senior director of behavioral health services, write on the unique ways…
Blog
This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2023, the latest year for which data was…
Headline
The National Institutes of Health Sept. 16 announced it has launched a consortium to help reduce preventable stillbirths across the U.S. The NIH said…
Headline
A bipartisan House letter by Reps. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., Gus M. Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., urged House…
Headline
A blog by Julia Resnick, AHA senior director of health outcomes and care transformation, describes a new project with the Commonwealth Fund that will explore…