Yesterday, we alerted our partners to the great news that the Senate had passed H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). In addition to permanently repealing the Sustainable Growth Rate, the flawed formula used to determine Medicare physician payment rates, we are pleased that MACRA refunds the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for two years with all its current provisions intact. It also provides funds for community health centers, the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting program, and family-to-family information centers and continues the Transitional Medical Assistance program which supports families as they transition out of Medicaid eligibility.

In reflecting on this huge win for children and families, we want to thank our partners for their tireless advocacy for CHIP. These advocates encouraged their governors to submit comments about the importance of CHIP in their state, educated their Congressional delegations about the harm that would come from losing CHIP funding, and activated their grassroots to ensure policymakers heard the message loud and clear. Their engagement on the issue of CHIP funding has been unflagging, and we are deeply appreciative of their work—we hope they will take a moment out of their busy schedules to take a victory lap!

So what’s next for children’s health? We still have plenty of work to do, ensuring that kids who enroll in Marketplace plans—now or in the future—have access to comprehensive benefits and provider networks via policies that are affordable for their families. We need to continue exploring policies that will support continuity of coverage and reduce churn, so kids can stay connected to the care they need. And we are excited to think about health system transformation with an eye toward children’s health, building on our existing work on children’s health care quality. We are looking forward to engaging with our partners on all these topics and more.