What is the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)? Whom does it cover? How is it funded? How has health insurance coverage for poor children changed since the program was enacted in 1997?

What will be an ideal response?

An ideal response will:
1, Define CHIP as a health care program for children from families with modest incomes.
2, Explain that children may be covered by CHIP if they come from families with incomes above the poverty line (making them ineligible for Medicaid), but with incomes that do not enable the family to pay for their children's health care.
3, Describe the funding for CHIP as a joint effort of the federal and state governments.
4, Describe how the number of medically uninsured poor children has declined by nearly one-third since the program was enacted. Nearly all of these children would be without health insurance if it were not for CHIP.