Report: Rural children more likely to rely on CHIP

A new analysis for First Focus by Bill O’Hare shows that children in rural communities are more likely than their urban counterparts to get health care through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid.

By Bryan Thompson
Kansas Public Radio

TOPEKA — A Washington, D.C., group that advocates for families and children is urging Kansans to speak up for renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

CHIP was created in 1997 to provide coverage for kids whose families are not poor enough for Medicaid but can’t afford private insurance. Congress must reauthorize the program for it to continue after the next fiscal year. More than 56,000 children in Kansas are enrolled in CHIP.
The advocacy group First Focus recently released a report showing that publicly funded insurance, including CHIP and Medicaid, is more important to rural children than to their urban counterparts. According to First Focus spokesman Ed Walz, that’s absolutely true in Kansas.

“Rural kids are 23 percent more likely to get their health care through CHIP or Medicaid than kids in Kansas urban communities,” he said.

Kansas is positioned to play a key role in getting the program renewed, Walz said. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on the reauthorization Tuesday. In the House, Kansas Reps. Tim Huelskamp and Mike Pompeo, both Republicans, serve on the Congressional Rural Caucus.

The Senate bill would reauthorize CHIP through 2019. Walz said the price tag for the extension would depend on the final structure of the bill.

“There’s some really encouraging news there,” he said, because the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of extending CHIP funding for four years and found it would be less than the alternative.

“As children became uninsured and the federal government had to pick up some of those costs, as children moved into Obamacare exchange plans and as they moved into Medicaid – that combination of costs would actually be higher for the government than extending CHIP coverage,” Walz said.

First Focus conducted a poll earlier this year that showed strong bipartisan support for CHIP in Kansas, including two-thirds of Republicans and two-thirds of voters who identify with the Tea Party.