Monday, January 04, 2010 Program for Children Has Uncertain Future

By David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times

As Democratic Congressional leaders work to merge the House and Senate versions of major health care legislation, a big question is what they will do about the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which now provides coverage to more than nine million children and pregnant women and is expected to cover more than 14 million by 2013.

The Senate bill would preserve the program, known as CHIP, and would extend federal financing through 2015, two years past its expiration date under current law. The House bill, by contrast, would end CHIP and redirect the millions of children either to Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor, or to new health insurance exchanges where moderate-income Americans would be able to buy private coverage using new federal subsidies to help offset the cost.

Read more at The New York Times’ Prescriptions’ blog…

Filed under: Congress, Health Reform, Pediatrics, Proposed Legislation, Weekly Round Up, Women's health  by admin at 10:34 am 01.04.10 Add Comment Keywords: no tag