Children's health insurance program not out of the woods

States are facing new problems with the Children's Health Insurance Program, even as Congress passed a six-year reauthorization for the Children’s Health Insurance Program this week, ending a months-long standoff.

The issues include convincing residents the program still exists and how to grapple with a looming “CHIP cliff."

Advocates and states were relieved that CHIP was funded for six years as part of a short-term deal to fund the federal government until Feb. 8. However, some are concerned about the reason the deal came together: Congressional scorekeepers found that the program will cost less than alternatives for providing care to low-income children, chiefly Medicaid and Obamacare's subsidized plans.

The Congressional Budget Office found that extending CHIP for a decade would save the federal government $6 billion. That is a drastic change from earlier estimates last year that found the program would cost as much as $8 billion.

A big reason is that alternatives for CHIP such as subsidized Obamacare plans and Medicaid would be more expensive.