Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, ran out at the end of September, and Congress has not yet acted to re-authorize it.

More than 23,000 Arizona children are currently enrolled in the state’s program, known as KidsCare.

Heidi Capriotti, spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which administers KidsCare, says the feds redistributed money to some states to help them keep their programs running through the end of this month.

Capriotti says officials expect that money to last past January, but she says they also expect Congress to re-authorize CHIP sometime after the new year.

She says the state is not sending notices to enrolled families to let them know about potential changes to the program, but that’s not the case everywhere.

For a look at how this issue is affecting states across the country, I’m joined by Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.