Marbell Castillo holds her granddaughter Maia Powell during the toddler’s recent checkup at Burke Pediatrics in Fairfax County, Va. Maia is covered through the Children's Health Insurance Program. Congress missed a Sept. 30 deadline to extend funding for CHIP, as the Children’s Health Insurance Program is known. It now provides 88 percent or more of every state’s CHIP costs. Some states operate CHIP as an independent program and would have to shut theirs down if federal dollars dry up. Without CHIP, Castillo wondered, what would they do for affordable health insurance for Maia?

Source: Washington Post November 23, 2017 20:34 UTC