It’s a national issue with big implications for the state of Florida: The Children’s Health Insurance Plan funding is running out, leaving potentially thousands of Central Florida children in the lurch.

  • CHIP funding is running out in Florida
  • Long-term funding for CHIP yet to be established
  • Without federal help, Fla. CHIP may be in danger, says senator  

“I’m terrified of what it means as far as my kids, and what I’m going to do going forward," said Cassie Reyes, a Port Orange mom. “It’s a huge help to families like us."

Reyes is on maternity leave but works as a middle school teacher. Her husband is between part-time and full-time work in restaurants, caring for their three children, ages 5, 2, and 2-months.

Reyes said that they made too much to be on Medicaid and made too little for private insurance. But they could afford $20 a month and some co-pays on Florida KidCare, a low-cost health insurance for children, from birth to age 18.

“It helps us to not be struggling every month, just to pay for basic things," she said. “As a teacher, I work for the county. It would take up a majority of my paycheck to add on the kids.”

But the program, known as CHIP elsewhere, is struggling.

While 2.4 million children in Florida have relied on Medicaid and CHIP at some point in 2016 for care, according to Georgetown University research, there are over 374,000 children on KidCare alone.

Georgetown’s latest research finds that Florida is one of 24 states who will run out of money soon.

“We think they can barely get through the month of February," said Tricia Brooks, an associate research professor with Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

Brooks spent 14 years as the CHIP director of New Hampshire and now conducts research on the program for Georgetown.

She explained that CHIP is a block grant program, meaning Congress appropriates an amount of money for a certain period of time.

That money ran out in Sept 2017 and since then, states have been hanging onto their programs with leftover money from the prior year, plus the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's emergency shortfall funds.

Congress appropriated additional money in Dec. 2017 to the tune of $2.85 billion; Florida got around $123 million of that in shortfall funding.

But they have yet to establish a long-term plan.

“Our study was intended to highlight the fact that Congress needs to take action," Brooks explained. “It’s really unprecedented that states continue to worry and wonder as to when and how this will get done."

Other studies by Brooks and colleagues found that Medicaid and CHIP cover 100 percent of children in foster care and 50 percent of newborns in Florida, helping them with preventive screenings and immunizations, which they found led to better results in school and life.

Calling on lawmakers to act

Joan Alker, another Georgetown researcher, said that their studies are based upon national models, only states having more intimate knowledge of spending.

What no state knows, however, is how much money they would receive in redistribution of funds, should Congress get anything passed.

And while states used to get a proportional share, that changed last December — now everything depends on what other states spend.

“Once states run out of allotment, they get a piece of the pie, the redistribution fund," Alker said. “That’s why this is a dangerous situation that Congress let it get to this point."

Florida lawmakers are concerned, including Senator Anitere Flores, a Republican who represents Florida's 39th District, while serving as Senate President Pro Tempore and chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

Flores said that without federal help, Florida's program may not have the funds to continue.

“Unfortunately, the Children’s Health Insurance Program that has aided thousands of Floridians may not survive without federal assistance.  Although a $2.85 billion short-term fix was authorized by Congress in December, I call on them to act now! The burden is just too big a hole for the State of Florida to pick up, and it would be devastating to leave children without care."

Cassie Reyes, whose youngest child has down syndrome, is especially concerned for what a lapse in coverage, or worse, the program ending, may mean for her family.

“I know we have lots of specialists she’ll have to see when she turns 6 months old," she said.

Now Reyes and others are calling on Congress and Florida lawmakers to act.

“I think this definitely need to be a priority. There’s a ton of kids who benefit from this," she said. "Why are you going to hurt the kids, our future?”