#FundCHIPColorado

Update from the CHIP Coalition on Sept. 14:

"As many of you have heard, Senate Finance Committee leadership, Senators Hatch and Wyden, have announced a bipartisan policy agreement to continue funding CHIP. We have not yet seen any text, but understand that the agreement includes:

• A 5-year extension of CHIP funding
• Maintaining the 23% enhancement in the CHIP match rate for states  for 2 additional federal fiscal years, followed by a 3^rd year at 11.5%, before ending the enhanced rate, at which time states would return to their previous match rates, which in Colorado is 65%
• Relaxing the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires states to maintain their CHIP eligibility levels at the same levels as when the ACA passed – we are still getting details on how the MOE provision would be relaxed

We will be sure to share a link to the legislative text as soon as we see it.

We see this policy proposal as a good first step. It is a bipartisan agreement, and includes a 5-year extension of CHIP funding, which aligns with the coalition’s advocacy. We have not seen legislative text yet, so we feel that it is too early to say that we support the Hatch-Wyden proposal, but we are encouraged by this first step. We also believe that the Senate proposal is likely to be more closely aligned with our advocacy than a proposal from the House.

Our Colorado Senators, Senator Bennet and Senator Gardner have released a statement lauding this agreement to extend CHIP funding. You can see their statement here: https://www.bennet.senate.gov/?p=release&id=4036

Coalition Statement

We released a statement from the Coalition today, quoting Erin Miller, Vice President of Health Initiatives at the Colorado Children’s Campaign as a representative of the Coalition. The statement is linked here."