"We need your help urging Congress to extend CHIP as long as possible AND include the other critical health access programs like the National Health Service Corps, Health Centers and the Teaching Health Centers programs. The debate over funding offsets has evaporated with the new report from the Congressional Budget Office. Please urge both your Senators and Representatives to include funding for the NHSC as they move a CHIP bill in the next week.
The time is now to fully fund the National Health Service Corps!
Congress delayed action on reauthorizing and funding CHIP, NHSC, Health Centers, the THC program and other critical health care access programs due to the inability to find bipartisan funding sources. Past
funding for each of these programs expired last October, with Congress only recently passing
a short-term patch for each as last year came to a close.
Earlier this week, the CBO
revised their view of the cost of an 5 year extension of the CHIP program from $8.2 billion to $800 million (a decrease of 90%). In fact, they also said that if you extended CHIP for 6 years it would cost nothing, and if you did it for 10 years it would actual save the federal government over $6 billion.
Suddenly Congress is energized to move a CHIP bill coupled with the government funding bill
by next Friday, Jan. 19. We are very concerned that they will move a
CHIP-only extension, leaving the other critical programs, like the NHSC, behind."
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