Sen. Sherrod Brown pushes for CHIP extension
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) toured the Pediatric Primary Care Center (PPC) at Cincinnati Children’s on Friday, September 8. There, he met with primary care director, Mona Mansour, MD; president and CEO Michael Fisher, and two families who are seen at the PPC, to discuss the importance of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). At the end of the tour, he also addressed local news media.
Brown, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on Congress to reinvest in CHIP, known as Healthy Start in Ohio. Funding was set to expire at the end of September. Specifically, he asked for a five-year extension of the program.
“Because of CHIP, 209,000 Ohio children have access to quality, affordable healthcare today – healthcare they may not have received otherwise,” said Brown.
Mansour emphasized the benefits of receiving care in a medical home, like the PPC. “We know that early detection of health issues and the social determinants that impact them leads to more rapid intervention, which can prevent or mitigate poorer health outcomes and lower the cost of care over the child’s lifespan,” she said. “It is more cost-effective to vaccinate children than to treat them for a devastating preventable illness, like meningococcal meningitis. It is more cost-effective to screen for lead poisoning than to deal with the resulting long-term impact of cognitive and developmental impairment. And it is certainly ideal to detect stressors in the family that could put a child at risk for abuse than to experience the devastation of non-accidental trauma.”
Extending funding for CHIP is important to provide certainty to states that the program will continue and to families that their children will continue to be covered under the health insurance program. Nationwide, CHIP provides comprehensive, affordable coverage to more than eight million children.
“CHIP has always been a bipartisan effort,” said Brown, “and regardless of how you feel about other aspects of our healthcare system, making sure all of our kids have access to the best possible care is something we should all be able to work on together.”
