Children's Health Insurance Program

CHIP is a federal-state matching program with capped federal funding that provides health care coverage to targeted low-income children. The objective of CHIP is to enable states to maintain and expand child health care coverage to uninsured, low-income children and low-income pregnant women. This program has improved access to health care and quality of life for millions of vulnerable children under 19 years of age. There are currently over seven million children enrolled in CHIP. Under Title XXI of the Act, states have the option to operate a separate CHIP program, expand eligibility for children under their state Medicaid program, or operate a combination of these two options.