A continuing funding resolution passed by Congress this week to keep the federal government running through Dec. 22 did not include money for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
That failure by Congress to include CHIP funding leaves a number of states on track to run out of their allocated CHIP money soon.
NBC News, in a story on that omission, noted that the continuing resolution "simply calls on the [U.S.] Health and Human Services Department to re-allocate any remaining funds to the most desperate states."
HHS so far has not said what states will get any such re-allocated money or how much is available.
Congress let the funding authorization for CHIP lapse at the end of September. Since then, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been unable to agree on a deal to reauthorize funding the program, despite its popularity.
CHIP provides health coverage to about 9 million kids and is jointly run by the federal government and individual states.
NBC News noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics has said Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Utah are on the verge of running out of their existing CHIP funds by the end of the year.