Rockefeller: 'Blended rate' proposal could be end of CHIP

CQ HealthBeat: Rockefeller Says Latest 'Blended Rate' Proposal Would End CHIP
The $320 billion package of Medicare and Medicaid cuts President Obama announced yesterday as part of his plan to reduce deficit spending would effectively end the Children's Health Insurance Program, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said Tuesday. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a leading advocate of the program on Capitol Hill, was referring specifically to a part of the plan, known as the "blended rate" proposal that would start in 2017. It would involve averaging the varying percentages the federal government pays states for covering different types of Medicaid enrollees. The single rate derived would also be the federal share the government pays to cover CHIP enrollees. Both Medicaid and CHIP are federal-state programs with each entity sharing coverage costs (Reichard, 9/20).