AUSTIN, Texas - Texas is still waiting for additional money to keep a popular children's health insurance program in business a little longer.

CHIP covers more than 400,000 Texas kids, but its future remains in limbo after Congress failed to renew the program in September.

Some health care professionals said delaying CHIP funding any longer could have long-term health effects.

"Those kids will basically wind up uninsured," said People's Community Clinic Chief Medical Officer and Director of Pediatrics Dr. Louis Appel

The federal program provides health insurance for the children of parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance.

Congress let funding for the program expire September 30.

"It's been a really important program for providing care and access to care for families," Dr. Appel said.

The doctor says if CHIP isn't renewed, more kids might have to forego preventative care like checkups.

"Then the kids end up getting sick more, wind up in the emergency room, wind up missing school. Parents wind up having to stay home to try to take care of them. And it's a whole cascade of issues," said Dr. Appel.

Some child health advocates say they blame inaction in Congress for the failure to move on renewing CHIP.

"It's very frustrating. We are beyond the 'it'll work out sometime' approach. Congress needs to act now," said Adriana Kohler of Texans Care for Children

Texas has enough money to keep CHIP running until the end of January, but the state says it's confident it will get a requested $90 million to keep the program afloat through February.

Without the money, the state's health agency will have to send cancellation notices to families right before Christmas.

"If state officials confirm that we've received this emergency funding request, then notices won't go out this month," Kohler said.  

Back at People's Community Clinic, Dr. Appel saids he doesn't want any letters landing in any stockings.

"The whole system works better when everyone has coverage, and CHIP is an important piece of that coverage," Appel said. 

If CHIP is not renewed, the children on the program will be transferred to the insurance marketplace, but child health advocates say that would likely lead to a lapse in coverage.