ACTION ALERT
Congress still hasn’t taken action to extend the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which funds the Child Health Plus program here in New York.
The Children, Youth and Families Task Force of Health Care for All New York (HCFANY) is circulating a sign-on letter to the New York Congressional Delegation to urge them to extend CHIP funding.
Please see below for the text of the letter and the link to add your organization to the list of co-signers. The deadline is Monday at noon.
Dear Friends,
Please join us in sending an organizational letter to the NYS Congressional Delegation in support of funding for the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which funds the Child Health Plus program. The full text of the letter is below. If you would like to sign your organization on, please complete this form.
Please share this letter with your networks!
DEADLINE FOR SIGN-ONS: Monday, December 18 @ 12:00 PM
TEXT OF LETTER:
Dear New York State Congressional Delegation:
Congress must renew federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) now. New York will exhaust funding for our CHIP program, known as Child Health Plus, in early 2018. Even before the money runs out, we expect that the State will need to inform families that coverage will be ending. This does not have to happen: Congress is close to getting CHIP done. There is agreement on the policy and the program has the same bipartisan support today as it did when it was created.
The undersigned represent child and health advocates from across New York State and we are deeply concerned that the lack of action by our Members of Congress has placed Child Health Plus and the health of hundreds of thousands of children in jeopardy. We take great pride in New York’s historically high rate of children’s health coverage; nearly 98 percent of our children have health insurance, thanks in large part to Medicaid and CHIP.
New York, like all states, is in urgent need of continued, stable, long-term funding for CHIP. No family should face the loss of coverage for their children because our elected leaders failed to act. Yet, states have begun sending termination notices to families. Please, do not let New York be one of those states. Congress can and must extend CHIP, before any New York child loses health insurance coverage.