Ernst on CHIP: “We need to reauthorize this program”

During a Town Hall event in Iowa City, Every Child Matters organizer Jill Applegate asked Senator Joni Ernst about the fate of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). “We have to reauthorize it,” Ernst responded promisingly. “We need to reauthorize this program.” Funding for CHIP, which provides health coverage for 8.9 million children in the U.S., is set to expire on September 30 if Congress does not vote to renew the program.

Ernst disclosed that she had sent a letter to Orrin Hatch, chair of the Senate Finance Committee which oversees CHIP funding, supporting the program’s reauthorization, and promised to “keep pushing” for an extension of CHIP funding.

Every Child Matters joined over a hundred children’s advocacy organizations in sending a letter to Congress calling on them to act immediately to pass a 5-year extension of CHIP funding, so that children and families can continue to get the care they need. Read the letter here.