U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller says
the Children’s Health Insurance Program, CHIP, is better than the Affordable
Care Act in several ways.
“The wonderful thing about CHIP,
unlike the Affordable Care Act, is that it has both dental and mental covered
and generally speaking its coverage is better, is better, than the Affordable
Care Act, which I don’t like to say but I have to be honest,” Rockefeller said.
The senator made the comments
during a Senate subcommittee meeting that he chaired Tuesday afternoon. The
focus of the meeting was the continued funding of CHIP. The funding is set to
expire Sept. 2015.
Rockefeller said that would be a
shame for the program that covers 8 million children and pregnant women in the U.S. including nearly 40,000 in West Virginia.
“We can’t do it. We just can’t do
it,” he said. “If it was a matter of high controversy with Republicans and
Democrats clawing at each other’s eyeballs, etc., but it’s not the case. It
just isn’t the case on this one.”
Rockefeller said CHIP has had good
bipartisan support during its 17-year existence. Congress has authorized it
until 2019 but the funding only for another year. He said studies show changing
CHIP would be costly to those who need it most.
“Moving children into other forms of
private insurance would cause a 10-fold increase in the amount of out-of-pocket
spending for CHIP families. We can’t afford that. We just can’t have that,” the
senator said.
Rockefeller added continuing CHIP
funding would be one of his highest priorities during his last few months in
office. The senator did not seek reelection.
