MACBasics: Federal CHIP Financing

September 1, 2011 In September 2011, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) released a report on Federal CHIP Funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which pays for the health insurance coverage of targeted low-income children. The report differentiates between the state funded CHIP and the federally funded Medicaid program, pointing out that: Federal CHIP allotments to states, which are based on a formula using the state’s previous CHIP spending, are capped; states can exhaust their federal CHIP funding, unlike typical federal Medicaid funding; Under current law, there are no appropriations for . . .