CHIP deferred

In pursuit of tax reform at any price, re-authorization of CHIP was “deferred” with promises that it would be addressed as part of the tax reform package. It was not, leaving the states to figure out how to continue to find funding in their already stretched budgets to sustain this program that provides critical health care to thousands of children here in the state of Washington and untold numbers across the country. CHIP is now reportedly to be addressed by Congress sometime early in 2018, possibly retaining it in a deferred status as a bargaining chip (pun intended) for future political “horse trading.”

While we continue to make a mess of our broader health care system (the tax reform package takes away the mandate that underpinned the Affordable Care Act), should we also deny health care to the thousands of children served by CHIP? In 25 years, these children will be running our communities and our nation, and we want to handicap them? More than ever, we need to maximize the potential of all our children if we expect our communities and our nation to thrive in the 21st century and beyond.

Wayne R. Rounseville

Spokane Valley