Fate Of PA Children’s Health Insurance Program In Hands Of Congress

HARRISBURG, PA (CBS) — The fate of Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program is now in the hands of Congress. The legislature has now sent a bill reauthorizing the state program to Governor Wolf’s desk.

A spokesman says Governor Wolf will sign the CHIP re-authorization bill now that controversial language related to transgender children has been removed.

But 90 percent of the money for Pennsylvania’s CHIP program comes from the federal government, and Congress has yet to reauthorize that funding.

In a statement Monday evening, Governor Wolf praised the legislature’s vote to extend the program and urged lawmakers in Washington to do the same immediately.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for House Republican leaders says a separate bill that would ban CHIP coverage for gender reassignment surgery is still being worked on, but he could not say if or when that bill might come up for a vote.