CHIP was born here
The children’s health program started in Fox Chapel
Iwas glad to read “Children’s Health Insurance Program Turns 25 This Week” in the Post Gazette Nov. 30, touting Pennsylvania as the model for the national program. In a New York Times story a few days later, “The CHIP Program Is Beloved. Why Is Its Funding in Danger?” U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch claimed, “Nobody believes in the CHIP program more than I. I invented it.”
The beginning of CHIP actually goes back further than either claim. It took root from seeds planted at the Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church in 1984, when recently unemployed steelworkers came to church to protest their plight.
I was singing in the choir there on Mother’s Day that year when the steelworkers entered to demonstrate. They lined the walks, carrying dead fish, to greet parishioners as they had at other churches where company executives worshipped. I saw them fill the front pews, then stand to face the congregation, intending to stand throughout the service. We had been alerted they were coming, but, while some churches had kept them out, we were instructed to welcomethem.
The Rev. John Galloway greeted them and asked them to tell us what they needed. Their spokesman tearfully explained they were hurting, most of all because they couldn’t provide their children adequate healthcare.
Rev. Galloway thanked them and invited them to continue standing or to sit and join us in worship. They sat. He then offered to meet them after church to find a way we could help them, his graciousness disarming them.
At a follow-up meeting, Bill Ewart, a former executive with a steel company, who, together with a church elder, had met with the Unemployment Committee in the Mon Valley, suggested we fund health insurance for one of the children. Rev. Galloway countered with, “Let’s insure all of them,” admitting later he had no idea where the money would come from.
A committee was formed: Kathleen and Jim Lee, CEO of Gulf Oil, were named cochairs, with members Rev. and Susan Galloway, Verne and Mary Anne Koch, and Mr.Ewart. Charlie LaVallee, CEO of the Variety Club, an nonprofit working with children, was recruited by the honorary chair, Fred Rogers,to work with us.
Mr. LaVallee was named director of the Caring Program and was instrumental in working out the insurance plan with Eugene Barone, president and CEO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It was launched in 1985 at a press conference with Gov. Dick Thornburg.
Initially, 100 children were insured by church members contributing $13 per month, or $156, for a year’scoverage. With matching funds from BC/BS, the church ended up insuring 200 children that first year.
Other sponsors soon came on board, including other churches, Pittsburgh Presbytery, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and the United Jewish Federation. Sports teams included the Pirates, the Steelers, the Erie and Harrisburg hockey teams. Then there were the labor organizations, such as United Steelworkers, and civic groups: Rotary, Kiwanis and schools. Businesses contributed: Colgate, Digital Equipment, WTAE-TV, the Oscar Mayer Co. and Avis. Sometime later, NBC’s Tom Brokaw sent a crew to the Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church to tape a feature story about its starting of the Caring Program for Children, which aired on national television.
Support for the program soon expanded and became the model for the Children’s Health Insurance Program of Pennsylvania, which was signed into law in 1992 by Gov. Robert Casey. Funding came from a 2-cents-perpack tax on cigarettes, which brought in $10.5 million annually. This added dramatically to the number of children reached.
In 1997, Pennsylvania BlueCHIP became the model for the national Children’s Health Insurance Program signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It now insures nearly 9 million children a year.
CHIP is much in the news these days, as Congress had yet to renew its funding over the past few months and states were running out of money to keep it going — despite the program’s continuing bipartisan support. Lawmakers finally stepped in yesterday to refinance CHIP, but only for three months.
Rev. Galloway once said, “It was a miracle that all segments of society got together to accomplish this wondrous thing — the religious community, business, labor, all political parties, schools, civic groups, the media. The whole community embraced the program. ... Real ‘ mission’ is when you listen to people, identify a real need and come up with a plan that will work.”
CHIP is still working. Let us hope that Congress does its job as well.