LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Nevada is asking the federal government for $11.3 million to continue the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program while Congress decides if it will renew funding for the decades-old program.
State Health and Human Services spokeswoman Chrystal Main tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would keep the Nevada Check Up program running through February.
Without it, she says the state will run out of funding by the end of the year, and families would need to find other health coverage.
Congress missed a Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize the program, which covers more than 27,500 Nevada children whose low-income families make too much to qualify for Medicaid.
The annual program cost of about $43 million in Nevada is covered almost entirely by federal funding.
