Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — According to CNN news reports on Wednesday, the White House is seeking to cut funding from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, as part of its larger request for cuts to the federal budget in a rescissions package sent to Congress this week.

The request from President Donald Trump includes a $7 billion cut to the popular program, part of $15 billion in overall cuts. Some $2 billion would come from a contingency fund that was created to prevent states from running out of money, with the rest coming from funding that Congress has authorized for the program but states haven’t spent.

The administration defended the cuts, telling reporters Monday the money would come from untapped leftover funds and wouldn’t affect operations at CHIP or other health care areas. “This is money that was never going to be spent,” said one official. CHIP is a medical coverage source for individuals under age 19 whose parents earn too much income to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay for private coverage

Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage varies from state to state, but all states’ CHIP plans cover routine check-ups, immunizations, doctor visits, prescriptions, dental care, vision care, hospital care, laboratory services, X-rays and emergency services.

Some states also cover parents and pregnant women. Samoa News asked Congresswoman Aumua Amata how American Samoa would be affected by this proposed cut in CHIP funding— which is considered by some in the local medical profession to be the cornerstone for the health of local medical and dental patients at the LBJ Hospital, especially children? Amata, replied via email, “Thank you for your question on the likelihood of additional legislation modifying the CHIP program this year thru the rescission process. “As you know, Senator Hatch created the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) with former Senator Ted Kennedy more than two decades ago. The program, which bridges the gap for families who don’t qualify for programs like Medicaid but still cannot afford private insurance, is successful, financially responsible, and continues to receive bipartisan support from myself and other Members from the Territories and States. Earlier this year, Congress enacted a six-year CHIP extension — the longest in the program’s history — based in large part on a bipartisan agreement Chairman Hatch struck with his counterpart Ranking Member Ron Wyden. The Bipartisan Budget Act added four more years of CHIP funding a few weeks later, ensuring that the program is funded through FY2027.

The Congress carefully balanced the needs and goals of the CHIP program with its responsibility to the taxpayer to pro- vide adequate funding for an important program.

The Congress reached a good compromise in funding the extension.” Amata notes, “the rescission process is sometimes used as a budget housekeeping tool to eliminate expired funding authority but I don’t foresee substantive cuts to the CHIP program by this Congress. She concluded, “Helping those most in need by extending the CHIP program is another ne legacy retiring Senator Orrin Hatch will leave and I thank him for his help to all of us in American Samoa, all the Territories and across the Country for his years of leadership.”

There are indications the cuts have run into trouble in the Senate before being released.

According to the Washington
 Post, Sen. Susan M. Collins
(R-Maine), using the program’s 
former name, said, “I would
 have to have an awfully good
 reason given to me, and maybe there is one. I don’t know why 
there would be funds left in the
 SCHIP account, but that’s a program that I was an original co-
sponsor of with Sens. [Orrin]
 Hatch and [Edward] Kennedy 
years ago and it matters a lot to 
me.”