Alabama officials hopeful Children’s Health Insurance Program will be renewed

Oct. 03--Alabama officials sounded optimistic Monday that Congress would reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program despite missing a key renewal deadline over the weekend.

Congress allowed the program, which covers about 150,000 children in two separate state programs, to lapse on Saturday. Cathy Caldwell, the director of the All Kids program -- part of CHIP -- said in an interview Monday morning that congressional staffers were giving her "daily assurances" that the funding would be found.

"As of right this moment, we're continuing business as usual," she said. "We have not put any notices in the mail to families. We're continuing to process eligible applicants."

The Children's Health Insurance Program provides insurance for children up to age 19 whose households makeup to 312 percent of the poverty line -- up to $50,688 a year for a household of two, and up to $63,710 for a household of three.

To become eligible, the children must be residents of Alabama and be otherwise uninsured. Qualifying families pay premiums -- ranging from $52 to $104 per child per year, depending on income -- and co-pays.

Alabama splits the program between Alabama Medicaid -- which covers children in poverty -- and the Alabama Department of Public Health, which administers the All Kids program for those making up to 312 percent of the poverty level. All Kids covers about 83,000 children. Medicaid provides coverage to another 70,000 children in their program.

Nationwide, the 20-year-old program covers 9 million children and has been credited with sharp drops in the number of uninsured children. It's had an equal impact in Alabama. A 2014 study found that the state had the lowest percentage of uninsured children in the South and that the total level of uninsured children dropped 18 percent between 2011 and 2014.

All Kids has funding to last through March, Caldwell said. If the program was really dead, Caldwell said, notices would have to start going out in November.

Members of Congress have said that they want to reauthorize the program in the next few weeks. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is planning a markup on a bill to extend CHIP next week. That has the support of Montgomery's representatives. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, whose district includes Montgomery, said in a statement the vote needs to happen "not a week from now, not a month from now, but right now.

"Many families in my district and across Alabama rely on CHIP to cover their children's checkups, immunizations, emergency care and more," the statement said. "Rather than wasting more time on partisan attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I am urging my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to focus on what we can do now to help stabilize the insurance marketplace and make health care more affordable for all families."

Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, said she hoped Congress would "send a bill to the president's desk very soon."

"Many families in Alabama depend on CHIP to make sure their children have access to health care," Roby said in a statement. "Policies like this can always be improved, but Congress should waste no more time in reauthorizing this important program."

The Alabama Legislature in the spring put aside $93 million in the General Fund to use to shore up Medicaid in 2019, though the money could be used to assist CHIP should Congress provide less than full funding to the states. House Ways and Means Chairman Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, said he had been speaking with congressional representatives for the past "six or seven weeks" about the future of the program.

"If they go to the Senate version, that would take care of our part for the next two years," Clouse said. "I don't know what the House version looks like."

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