This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Most Utahns do not realize that hundreds of thousands of children have health insurance, thanks to Sen. Orrin Hatch.

But the Children's Health Insurance Program, which stands on the shoulders of Medicaid, is under threat from the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. CHIP funding expires on Sept. 30.

Under the House bill, at least 141,000 Utah children would be uninsured by 2019.

And 171,000 parents would become uninsured, too; 71 percent of Utahns on Medicaid (and CHIP) are children.

Join me in calling on Hatch to urge him to keep CHIP and Medicaid coverage for children when drafting the Senate version of the health-care bill.

Davis Billings

Salt Lake City