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Budget Office Cuts Cost Estimate of Children's Insurance Associated Press by Alan Fram — Congress's official budget analysts have eased one stumbling block to lawmakers' fight over renewing a program that provides health insurance for nearly 9 million low-income children. The Congressional Budget Office says a Senate bill adding five years of financing to the program would cost $800 million. Previously, the analysts estimated it would cost $8.2 billion. That means lawmakers should find it much easier to agree to a way to pay for extending the program.
- Parents Agonize Over Their Kids' Health as Funding for Children's Insurance Program Remains in Doubts Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey — Like roughly 9 million children nationwide, Bobby and Dylan are covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a government health plan created in 1997 for kids of working families. What keeps their parents up at night are warnings the program may be suspended because Congress has failed since Sept. 30 to pass a measure to reauthorize it. And although lawmakers passed a stopgap before Christmas, West Virginia is among several states that have warned parents the program could close soon, in its case, at the end of next month. In Washington, the short-term CHIP funding has been largely written off as a footnote in broader political fights consuming the capital. But for the Belts and legions of other working-class parents around the country, the uncertainty has been agonizing.