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AAFP: ‘Time to get the job done on CHIP’

AAFP’s president told Healio Family Medicine the time for disagreement on funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program needs to be concluded, in light of the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation report that determined that continuing the program would decrease the federal deficit by $600 million over the next decade.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) also released a report that indicated a $7.5 billion reduction in CHIP’s cost over the next 10 years. CBO stated the cost reduction was based on expectations “that premiums for coverage through the marketplaces will be higher in the absence of the mandate penalties than they would otherwise have been.” The office also worked into its estimate the idea that more parents will go without insurance in the absence of penalties connected to the individual mandate and final regulations “related to how premiums differ by age that increase premiums for children’s coverage through the marketplaces.”

“Whenever we see that the price tag drop from $8.2 billion over 5 years, to $880 million, it should certainly lend itself to agreement on both sides of the aisle that it’s time to move forward and take care of our children,” Michael Munger, MD, and AAFP president said in an interview. “It’s time to get [the job done] on CHIP.”

As previously reported by Healio Family Medicine, the CBO report determined that, providing insurance to more than 9 million low-income children and women through the CHIP program would cost approximately $880 million from 2018-2027, significantly less than insuring them through Medicaid, subsidized insurance or employment-based insurance.

The AAFP had previously joined with American Academy of Pediatricians, the American College of Physicians, American Psychiatry Association, American Osteopathic Association and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in a letter sent to lawmakers imploring them to reach a permanent solution on CHIP funding. and Munger met with members of the Senate, House as well as congressional staffers during a trip to Washington DC last week.

Munger said that the CBO report should bolster their argument and that the associations would continue to press for finding the budget for CHIP.

“We will intensify our messaging to everyone on the Hill the fact that we cannot allow this funding to stop, and we cannot allow our families to go without coverage. This is about our patients, their constituents, and we need to make sure we get this across the finish line,” he said.

The CBO report comes at a time when there is bipartisan support for CHIP, but little else. Many Democrats had previously refused to support a proposal that would have paid for CHIP by cutting funding for other public health programs, according to The New York Times.

The Washington Post reported that Democrats wanted to tie permanent CHIP funding to providing protection for the ‘dreamers’ due to be deported after President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and called on Congress to find a permanent solution. President Trump and Republicans want any legislation aimed at DACA to also include increased funding for border security, including the long-discussed border wall.

With no clear path forward and a Friday deadline to extend funding for the federal government looming, another temporary spending bill seems likely. – by Janel Miller

Disclosure: Munger is president of AAFP.