A two-week spending bill is making money available to several states that are running out of funds for the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
According to ForABetterTexas.org, the current CHIP caseload by county lists 50,274 cases in Dallas County; 32,891 in Tarrant County; 7,659 in Collin County and 8,241 in Denton County. In Dallas, roughly 40,000 of those children in Dallas County receive care at Children's Health.
CHIP lost funding at the end of September, and since then each state has been running the program through reserve funding. Each state has a different amount of money set aside. Other states, like Colorado, have already run out.
Texas will run out of reserve funding at the end of January.
Matt Moore, who is the VP of Government Relations for Children's Health, has been flying back and forth from Dallas to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the program.
"The program does have bi-partisan support, but the House and the Senate can't decide how it will get funded," said Moore. "We're in a unique situation, but it is frustrating for those parents. If you're a parent who has a child with a specialized illness, or has surgery scheduled after January 31st, you're concerned right now. Yes, you're worried."
Parkland Hospital provides care for large percentage of pregnant women who receive CHIP. In 2017 the hospital received 13,550 CHIP and CHIP Prenatal patients, which accounted for 97,113 visits. 13,007 were pregnant women.
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"We are a big funding source, especially for pregnant women," said Bart Ensley, Director of Patient Access at Parkland Health and Hospital System. "Patients have been asking, 'what do we do?' and we can only tell them what we know. They can apply for different grants or other forms of assistance. The patients are in a vulnerable state."
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission filed an application for a $90 million grant to keep the state of Texas afloat until the end of February.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed," said Katherine Yoder, VP of Government Relations at Parkland Health and Hospital System. "There is no telling if THSC will get approved and even then, it's still a temporary fix."
