A current issue that is going on is that the funding for Children's Health Insurance Program has run out. I have seen a lot about this in the news lately and it's something that I wanted to learn more about and reflect on.
There are 16 states that will run out of funding by the end of January. This is because Congress has not chosen to renew it. This is understandably hard for families to hear and it leaves a lot of children in jeopardy.
I believe that CHIP is such an important program. Children deserve to have access to healthcare and health insurance regardless of how much their parents make or their parents financial status. It's not fair to children to take away this funding. An example in an article I read was about a 10 year old boy named Bradley who depends on CHIP for health insurance. Bradley has a deadly allergy which forces him to carry an EpiPen with him. With CHIP, an EpiPen is $35 which is reasonable and affordable. However, when CHIP is no longer available to him, a single EpiPen will cost his family $500. I imagine there are thousands of more cases very similar to this one across the US.
An interesting fact is that there is bipartisan support for CHIP in Congress, but there is disagreement on how to fund it. If there is a lot of support for this they should be able to figure out the logistics. I think that it is very sad that politics are getting in the way of innocent children's access to healthcare.
To read more about this I have attached links to some articles I have read.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/letters-warn-families-they-may-lose-chip-children-s-health-n828941
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/politics/chip-extended-states-funds-kimmel-authorization/index.html
There are 16 states that will run out of funding by the end of January. This is because Congress has not chosen to renew it. This is understandably hard for families to hear and it leaves a lot of children in jeopardy.
I believe that CHIP is such an important program. Children deserve to have access to healthcare and health insurance regardless of how much their parents make or their parents financial status. It's not fair to children to take away this funding. An example in an article I read was about a 10 year old boy named Bradley who depends on CHIP for health insurance. Bradley has a deadly allergy which forces him to carry an EpiPen with him. With CHIP, an EpiPen is $35 which is reasonable and affordable. However, when CHIP is no longer available to him, a single EpiPen will cost his family $500. I imagine there are thousands of more cases very similar to this one across the US.
An interesting fact is that there is bipartisan support for CHIP in Congress, but there is disagreement on how to fund it. If there is a lot of support for this they should be able to figure out the logistics. I think that it is very sad that politics are getting in the way of innocent children's access to healthcare.
To read more about this I have attached links to some articles I have read.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/letters-warn-families-they-may-lose-chip-children-s-health-n828941
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/politics/chip-extended-states-funds-kimmel-authorization/index.html
Comments
Post a Comment