A program created by a 1997 law to provide federal matching funds for states to spend on health coverage for uninsured kids. The program is designed to reach uninsured children whose families earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private coverage. Congress initially authorized CHIP for a 10-year period that expired at the end of September 2007. CHIP was reauthorized and enlarged early in 2009 in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), which increased CHIP funding by about $32 billion through 2013 to cover an additional 4 million children. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires states to maintain existing income eligibility levels for children in CHIP (and Medicaid) until 2019, and it extended funding for CHIP through 2015. In 2015, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) extended funding for CHIP until September 2017. It funds a 23 percent increase in federal matching rates for each state until September 2017. (See Medicaid and CHIP chapter.)