THE KID ANGLE: WHAT THE ACA FIGHT HAS TO DO WITH KIDS

The following information was released by First Focus:

Congress can't seem to make up its mind about what to do with health care.

And the uncertainty looks eerily familiar to folks who watch children's coverage: The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid together keep nearly half of all U.S. children insured, offering them access to pediatric-specific care that changes the course of their physical, mental, social, and economic health and well-being. Yet CHIP is the ONLY federal insurance program that is not permanent, repeatedly subjecting its survival to the whim of lawmakers.

Lawmakers allowed CHIP to expire in 2007 and again in 2017. Their next opportunity comes on September 30, 2029, when CHIP's current authorization ends.

"The fight over these short-term subsidies offers a foreboding warning about the instability inherent in temporary federal health policies," First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley wrote to lawmakers last week. "The uncertainty surrounding the [Affordable Care Act] subsidies illustrates the urgent need to guarantee long-term stability for children's coverage. We strongly advocate for and support making CHIP permanent in federal law."

More than 2 million children also are currently enrolled in the ACA Marketplace, including some in child-only plans, and the expiring tax credits could hurt them directly. The sunsetting subsidies could hurt millions more children indirectly: Premiums are expected to more than double for the roughly 20 million Americans who rely on the enhanced subsidies for health care coverage. And research has shown that when parents lose coverage their children do too.

First Focus Campaign for Children urges lawmakers to:

Immediately legislate a clean and permanent extension of the enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credits to stabilize coverage and prevent massive premium hikes.

Ensure the long-term health of our nation's children by making CHIP a permanent program, as has been proposed under H.R. 1901, the Children's Health Insurance Program Permanency (CHIPP) Act by Rep. Nanette Barragan (CA).

The CHIPP Act would ensure continuous access to affordable, high-quality, age-appropriate care for children, prevent disruptions to coverage that could increase the number of uninsured children, provide financial and health care security to families with children who have asthma, cancer and other chronic illnesses, and prevent lawmakers from continually using the program as a bargaining chip in negotiations. All of these actions offer long-term cost savings.