Louisiana Children's Health Insurance Program will run out of money in January unless Congress acts

Louisiana will run out of money for the state's Children's Health Insurance Program in the middle of January if Congress does not continue federal funding for it. The program -- which is called LaCHIP for short -- provides health insurance for 121,000 children under 19 years old from low-income families in Louisiana.

If Congress fails to act, 6,300 of those children could lose their health insurance completely by early next year, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. Losing federal funding would also cause the state's already daunting budget crisis to grow even larger.