Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and his Oregon counterpart, Kate Brown, took to the phones today to urge Congress to reauthorize the federal health insurance program for kids and pregnant women.

Hickenlooper told reporters on the conference call that about 75,000 children and 800 pregnant women are at risk of losing their federally-funded health insurance. Money for the program, known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program Plus, or CHIP+, runs out in Colorado at the end of January. In Oregon, Brown said more than 80,000 children and pregnant women would lose coverage, although the state has enough funding to keep it going until April.

As one of the nation’s lowest-tax states, Hickenlooper said, continuing the program on the state’s own dime just isn’t possible. Colorado pays about $159 million into the program, but the state can’t continue to cover that and the federal match as well, which is around $315 million, he said.

Hickenlooper said he could go to the Joint Budget Committee to find dollars to keep the program going, but “to get the kind of money we need for CHIP for any extended period is hard to imagine.” He added that the state has begun making a priority list to determine which kids are at the greatest risk and where funding decisions should be focused.

Congress let the program expire on Oct. 1, although it can still reauthorize its funding in time for 2018. About 9 million children nationwide rely on the program for health care coverage, at a reported cost of $13.6 billion.

Brown recounted that she had recently met a 9-month-old child with a hole in her heart, and all of her medical care is provided by CHIP. The child faces many future surgeries and her mother said without CHIP, the family would be financially crushed.

“Without re-authorization, thousands of families will face these crushing circumstances,” Brown said.

“It’s imperative Congress stop playing political games and fund CHIP,” she added.

According to Hickenlooper, CHIP is not a partisan issue. He noted it was built on a bipartisan platform, under a Republican Congress and Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

“That shouldn’t get to the point where it becomes part of a poker game,” he said. “Children should be the one thing that all of us can agree will be a priority for funding.”