U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro (Official photo)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik spoke on the House floor and voted in support of funding a five-year extension of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program through the Championing Healthy Kids Act, among other health care services.

CHIP provides general health insurance — covering checkups, medication and hospital care — to low- and moderate-income children. Stefanik said more than 21,000 children in New York’s 21st Congressional District, which she represents, use the program.

The bipartisan legislation also funds a two-year extension community health centers, which serve more than 95,000 people in the district; averts a Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital reduction of $5 billion, which is scheduled to take place under the current law; and maintains a 23 percent funding increase in the Federal CHIP Matching Rate for the 2018 fiscal year.

The legislation also sets aside $1 billion in Medicaid programs in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to help with recovery from the hurricanes that battered the islands late in the summer.