Nearly a dozen states are readying for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides insurance to low-income children, to run out of funding, according to a report from The Washington Post.
Five states are at risk of running out of funding for their individual programs by late December, according to the report. Other states reportedly have enough money to keep their programs afloat for a few more months at least.
The report comes after Congress missed a deadline to extend funding for the program in September, putting the program, which enjoys bipartisan support, at risk of running out of money for the first time since its conception roughly 20 years ago.
The program provides health coverage to roughly 9 million low- and middle-income children.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have awarded around $607 million in redistributed funds to states and U.S. territories after states asked for funding to hold them over temporarily.
Legislation aimed at funding the program for five years passed the House earlier this month, while the Senate Finance Committee passed a bipartisan, five-year CHIP extension, but hasn’t yet released offsets.
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