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Issue Position: Health Care - CHIP

Issue Position

Date: Jan. 1, 2011
Issues: Health and Health Care

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Making sure Montana's children have access to quality health care is one of my top priorities. The CHIP program currently provides health care insurance to more than 17,000 low-income kids in Montana alone. The program covers more than 7 million children nationwide. In the last ten years the number of uninsured children has dropped by more than one third. This is a very important program.

I'm proud of the role I played in crafting the federal CHIP legislation when it was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1997.

Since then, I have continued to play a role in supporting the program, both nationally and in Montana.

Reauthorization of CHIP

After a successful ten year history, the CHIP program came up for reauthorization in 2007. I led an effort in the Senate to craft a reauthorization package that would build on the previous success of the CHIP program and provide the additional funds I knew Montana and other states needed. Unfortunately, President Bush vetoed that bill. Congress decided to work on a new compromise and sent a second reauthorization bill to the President Bush, which he also vetoed.

In light of the President's vetoes, Congress passed a temporary extension of the current program through March 31, 2009. Finally, in January 2009, I led the Finance Committee and Senate passage of the $32.8 billion bill that preserves coverage for as many as 7 million children and brings new health coverage to 4.1 million additional low-income, uninsured American children. In February, President Obama signed the bill into law -- making it possible for Montana to implement I-155, expanding CHIP to all kids in families with incomes at or below 250% of federal poverty without fear of a budget shortfall.

Also, as part of comprehensive health reform, I helped extend the current reauthorization period for two more years -- through September 30, 2015 -- to make sure that kids stay covered while the other reform measures go into effect.


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