The Hill News

The nation’s governors are in town preparing to engage federal policymakers in a range of their concerns and problems related to “federalism.” However, there are success stories related to that partnership, such as the effort to reduce the uninsured rate among children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid. In fact, those two programs have worked in tandem to cut the uninsured rate for children by more than half, or to less than 10 percent, over the past decade.

Unfortunately, this model of success for children is being challenged by some governors, who are pushing for repeal of the maintenance of effort (MOE) provision that was included in health reform that requires states to maintain coverage levels within both Medicaid and CHIP through at least 2014. Repealing the MOE would undermine the goal of health reform and the creation of CHIP in the first place, which is to expand coverage and reduce the number of uninsured in! our country. In fact, over 14 million children would be put at risk by such a change.

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