Senate Finance Committee Announces Agreement on 5-Year CHIP Reauthorization

This week, Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Vice Chair Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) announced agreement on a $35 billion five-year funding extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Such long-term extension is expected to provide stability to the CHIP program and its beneficiaries, as well as increased flexibility for states to administer the program. The proposed legislation would continue the 23 percent increase in the federal matching rate afforded by the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) through 2019, decrease the rate to 11.5 percent in 2020, and eliminate the enhanced rate in 2021. A brief overview of the proposal from the Senate Finance Committee is available here and full legislative text is expected within the coming days.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, however, has yet to announce or unveil legislation related to the CHIP reauthorization. Recently, California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley submitted a letter to the leadership of both the Senate Finance Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee urging the reauthorization of CHIP and highlighting the importance of such program to more than two million children and pregnant women in California. Secretary Dooley’s letter is available here.