The Alliance for Health Reform and Kaiser Family Foundation held a briefing on Monday about the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP provides quality health coverage for over 8 million kids – including nearly 500,000 in New York under Child Health Plus.

The Program was extended in the ACA through 2019, but unfortunately funding for the program expires next September without congressional action. This would be bad news for kids – many could lose coverage (some due to the “family glitch“) or pay more for comprehensive coverage. Not to mention it would cut short a program that has been enormously successful in reducing the child uninsurance rate, which fell by half since the program began in 1997.

A summary of the briefing and all materials are available on the Alliance for Health Reform website, including background materials, videos, and speaker presentations. Speakers included Joan Alker, executive director at Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, Robin Rudowitz, associate director for Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Robert Stewart, analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, and Cathy Caldwell, director of the Bureau of Children’s Health Insurance in the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Check it out!