As Peter said, the children's uninsured rate in Texas has been a problem for many years, but now it's getting worse. The rate increased each of the last two years, driven in large part by falling enrollment in Children's Medicaid and CHIP.
So now we need to roll up our sleeves and redouble our efforts to make sure Texas kids have the health coverage they need.
One way we can start to reverse this trend is by reducing the extra rounds of red tape that knock eligible children out of Medicaid. During the recent legislative session, we worked with Reps. James Frank and Philip Cortez, as well as our partners, on a bipartisan first step that successfully passed the Texas House. Unfortunately, it came up short in the Senate and failed to become law, just like the bills legislators filed to reduce the uninsured rate for new moms and other Texans.
So we need to make sure that this issue — and health coverage in general — is front and center on lawmakers' agenda during the next legislative session.
You can also help by highlighting this issue on social media:
