REP. KATKO, BIPARTISAN GROUP OF NEW YORK COLLEAGUES REITERATE NEED TO FUND CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. John Katko (NY-24) this week joined a bipartisan group of his New York colleagues to reiterate to leaders in the House the importance of funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  

In September, Rep. Katko urged his colleagues in Congress to act in a bipartisan manner to reauthorize the program, which expired at the end of that month.   While New York currently has sufficient funding to sustain CHIP through the beginning of next year, it is imperative that Congress act urgently to reauthorize this program.

In this week’s letter, Rep. Katko stated, “The Children’s Health Insurance Program has been an enormously successful program responsible for dramatically reducing the volume of uninsured children across the nation.  In New York State alone, over 300,000 children receive insurance through this vital program, however, the authorization for this has also expired.  Congress must take immediate action in order to ensure continuous coverage for the roughly 9 million children benefiting from this program nation-wide.  We request that a 5 year extension of CHIP be included in any year-end measure to ensure our nation’s children receive the best care possible.”

Together with Medicaid, CHIP serves as the primary source of health insurance for nearly 9 million American children.  Issued as a block grant, CHIP is a collaborative program between the federal government and the states. 

In addition to urging the reauthorization of CHIP, Rep. Katko and his colleagues called for bipartisan action to fund Community Health Centers (CHC) and Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DHS) payment reductions, highlighting the importance of acting on each of these items in order to ensure that essential care and services are not interrupted for New Yorkers and Americans nationwide.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Congressman John Katko represents the 24th Congressional District of New York, which includes all of Onondaga, Cayuga, and Wayne Counties and the western portion of Oswego County.  For more information visit https://katko.house.gov or www.facebook.com/RepJohnKatko.

###