AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration is trying to avoid mailing health insurance cancellation notices to nearly half a million children three days before Christmas.

Unless it can get $90 million more in federal funding, though, Texas will end its Children's Health Insurance Program on Jan. 31. It would send notices about the program's termination to affected families on Dec. 22. More than 400,000 children of the working poor currently are covered under CHIP, as the state-federal program is known.

It has enough money to last through January, but Congress has balked at reauthorizing the program.

The state Health and Human Services Commission, which runs Texas’ version, requested $90 million from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That would allow CHIP to continue in Texas through February. If the federal agency does not agree by Dec. 9, the commission would prepare to end the program in January and refer families to the Affordable Care Act's online health insurance marketplace. But there are many concerns about moving families from CHIP to healthcare.gov, according to Adriana Kohler, senior health policy associate for the advocacy group Texans Care for Children.

“Families might fall through the cracks, families might not be able to afford coverage in the marketplace,” Kohler said. “And then there’s the system issue that needs to be worked out. On the online marketplace, if you qualify for other insurance programs like CHIP, you cannot enroll in a marketplace plan. So these kids are technically eligible for CHIP, but their coverage will lapse after January.”

Earlier this month, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus prodded commission chief Charles Smith to look at ways in which Texas can “continue coverage for children currently enrolled in CHIP as Congress completes the reauthorization process.” Straus cited a budget provision that calls for the state to transfer funds from other state agencies to avoid CHIP shutdown, but it’s not clear if other GOP state leaders are as eager as Straus to move money around for that purpose.

Kohler said state leaders need to push Congress to take immediate action.

“Straus spoke out on the issue, but otherwise state leaders have been pretty quiet, hoping things will work out.” Kohler said. “State leaders need to stress the urgency of CHIP funding to Congress. There’s no time left for the ‘it will probably work out’ approach. The longer we wait, the closer Texas gets to cutting off health care for these kids.”

The Hill reported that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has already awarded about $607 million in redistributed funds to other states and territories to help keep CHIP programs open before Congress comes up with a new funding solution.

The Health and Human Services Commission originally estimated it had enough funding to keep CHIP running until February, but waiving Hurricane Harvey victims' CHIP fees and co-payments cut into the commission's resources, commission spokeswoman Carrie Williams told The Dallas Morning News earlier this month.

Congress allowed CHIP funding to expire on Sept. 30. The program covers 9 million children nationwide. In Texas, the program covers children whose parents have too high an income to qualify for Medicaid, but make less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Texas’ version of CHIP covered about 402,500 children and almost 35,000 women receiving prenatal care and post-delivery checkups in August. Dallas County alone has more than 50,000 children and 5,800 women enrolled.