Title
To encourage and implore the United States Congress to immediately pass a fully-funded, five-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Plan, CHIP.
Body
WHEREAS, the United States Congress created the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP), with bipartisan support, in 1997 to ensure that children from working class families, who do not qualify for Medicaid but are in need of assistance, still have access to the quality health care services they need; and
WHEREAS, the CHIP program ensures more than 9 million children in the United States of America, including 220,000 children in Ohio; covering pregnant women so that their babies can have a healthy, strong start at life; and
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus has invested significantly in improving birth outcomes for newborns, reducing the infant mortality rate, and addressing health barriers in our community through the Celebrate One initiative; and
WHEREAS, CHIP is a significant tool of which our community can meet its goal to reduce the infant mortality rate by 40 percent and cut the racial health disparity gap in half by 2020; and
WHEREAS, the United States Congress has failed to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which expired on September 30, 2017, and since that time has not fully funded the program; and
WHEREAS, a new report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute points out that failure to authorize CHIP in full will strip health coverage from 1.9 million children in January of 2018 and another 1 million in February of 2018; and
WHEREAS, January of 2018 will be the last full month in which each state can continue funding CHIP without authorization by Congress. Several states have already sent letters to parents notifying them that their children will lose CHIP coverage in 30 days; and
WHEREAS, this Council believes that families deserve the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their children will have the health care coverage they need to...
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