Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven says the state can fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) into April.
Congress has yet to renew federal funding for the program, which is called hawk-i in Iowa. It provides health insurance for about 60,000 kids from low and moderate income families in the state.
Foxhoven says he thinks CHIP will be reauthorized, but he says Congress has been unpredictable.
"We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, and so we’re trying to develop some contingency plans, just in case," Foxhoven says. "We’re not real far along on those because we have several months, but it’ll be a challenge. There’s no question it’ll be a challenge to deal with that if it’s not reauthorized—it’s a lot of kids."
Federal funding for CHIP expired at the end of September. Some states are already running out of CHIP money and are warning families that they may have to end the program soon.
