Bill would safeguard children’s insurance

WASHINGTON — Ohio would not face any federal financial cutbacks for children’s health insurance during the next two years if Congress approves a bipartisan bill unveiled Monday.

The $9 billion measure, to reauthorize for five years the Children’s Health Insurance Program, would allow at least 210,000 lowincome children in Ohio to keep their coverage through the end of 2019.

If the Senate and House approve the bill, the federal government would continue to pay 97 percent of Ohio’s costs to maintain the program before that share declines to 85 percent in 2020 and 74 percent in 2021 and 2022.

That means state lawmakers in Columbus would have to find the extra money after 2019 to keep the program at its current level.

Before passage of the 2010 health-care law known as Obamacare, the federal government provided 74 percent of the costs of Ohio’s children’s insurance program. Obamcare boosted that percentage to 97 percent, but the higher federal payments were scheduled to end by next week.

In a statement, Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, said the bipartisan measure would give “Ohio families the assurance that their children’s health care will be protected for years to come.”

The Senate Finance Committee, whose members include the Ohio Democrat and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, is expected to pass the bill and send it to the Senate floor. Portman has indicated he will support the measure.

CHIP was created in 1997 as a way to reduce the number of low-income children without health coverage.