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U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) released the following statement after the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services assessed that the state will exhaust its funding for Michigan’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by April 2018 without action by Congress.

“In the past few months, families across the country have received notices that their child’s health insurance will be canceled because Congress has failed to reauthorize CHIP, a lifeline for nearly nine million American children. That threat just became more real with today’s announcement that Michigan’s CHIP allotment will expire in April 2018 and cancellation notices will start going out in the New Year to 100,000 Michigan families.

“It is unconscionable that Congress would add $2.3 trillion to the deficit in order to pass tax breaks for the wealthiest and big corporations while leaving children and families out in the cold. CHIP ensures every child can go to the doctor when they need to and receive necessary checkups and immunizations. It has always been bipartisan, and there is no reason it should not be today. This is not a time for games; this is about real people’s lives. I am calling on Republican leadership to come together with Democrats to renew CHIP in a bipartisan way before we go home for Christmas. American families cannot wait any longer.”