The Senate Finance Committee has arrived at a deal to extend the funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program by five years.

The New York Times reports that Senator Orrin G. Hatch, R-UT, chairman of the committee, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-OR, announced the deal to keep the program from running out of federal funds. The current funding would be exhausted by the end of September, leaving nearly nine million children without health insurance. The program is designed to help families that can't afford other coverage but make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Although some members of Congress theorized when the Affordable Care Act was passed that CHIP would no longer be needed, that has not proven to be the case; studies show that CHIP provides better, cheaper and more comprehensive benefits for children than the plans sold on ACA exchanges.