By Amanda Litvinov
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Health care coverage for nine million children is at risk, because funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expires tomorrow and Congress has not reauthorized it.
CHIP was designed specifically to cover children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford private coverage.
Signed into law in 1997 with strong bipartisan support, the program helps families with modest incomes access health services for their kids by keeping out-of-pocket expenses lower than they would be under other plans. More than half of the 9 million children served by CHIP are eligible for services provided in their schools through state Medicaid programs.
Karen Slade, a teacher’s assistant at Southern Alamance High School in Graham, North Carolina, knows first-hand how critical in-school health services are. She works with multi-needs students in the school’s Exceptional Children program.
“Our students all have different challenges,” Slade said. Some of those challenges are physical, and some are cognitive. They might require occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, medications or feedings, or a device that enables communication.
“For some students, school is the only place that they’re going to see the specialists we provide. They evaluate our students and start them on exercises and routines that the staff continues until their next visit,” said Slade, who has worked in public schools for nearly 20 years.
