No CHIP Shot

The just-passed federal health care reform bill would prohibit states from dropping kids off the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid until 2019. Texas budget writers used changes in CHIP eligibility to help balance the state’s books in 2003. Ben Philpott, covering politics and public policy for the KUT News and the Tribune, reports on what the “no-drop” provision could mean to a state facing another multibillion-dollar budget shortfall next year.

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Ben Philpott is a senior reporter for KUT-FM, Austin’s National Public Radio affiliate. He has been covering state politics and dozens of other topics for the station since 2002, during which time he...