Congressman Charles Dent (R-Lehigh) and Congressman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-Centre) today announced the introduction of legislation that would preserve the Pennsylvania Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as programs similar to CHIP in other states.

“CHIP was a bipartisan creation here in Pennsylvania that served for the basis of the federal model of market-based insurance for our children,” said Thompson. “This is a legacy in the Commonwealth and shifting children into Medicaid as required by the Affordable Care Act will only limit access to care for those who need it most. Moving forward, the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation must work together to make sure there is a permanent solution, codified in law, so children will be able to retain access to their health care and get out from under the ill-advised mandates created by the Affordable Care Act.”

Before the health care law, states had to cover children under the age of six in families who received income below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Older children and teens in families with incomes above 100 percent of the FPL were permitted to be covered in separate state CHIP or Medicaid programs at state option. Obamacare will cause 21 states to move children off of popular and well-run CHIP plans and into Medicaid.

This legislation, originally introduced by Dent, would simply scratch the changes from the healthcare law that would require all children below 133 percent of the FPL to be forced into Medicaid.

In Pennsylvania, this requirement would affect approximately 30,000 families.

If the CHIP Act were to be voted into law, states would then have the option of covering children between 100 percent and 133 percent FPL either in Medicaid as “Medicaid child funded with CHIP dollars” or in a different CHIP program.

Governor Corbett took up CHIP’s standard earlier this year and secured a one-year waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Including Thompson and Dent, the CHIP Act also has seven other original co-sponsers in PA: Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-Chester), Congressman Pat Meehan (R-Delaware), Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), Congressman Mike Kelly (R-Butler), Congressman Scott Perry (R-York), Congressman Lou Barletta (R-Luzerne) and Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-Montgomery).

PA CHIP is a nationally recognized program, originally established in 1992, reauthorized in 1998 and expanded in 2006. In the fiscal year 2012-2013 almost 190,000 children were enrolled in PA CHIP.