Cleburne Times-Review

By: Jessica Pounds

According to the new report by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, Texas has increased its number of insured children to 9.5% between 2013 and 2015. However, Texas’ change of 7.1% is way higher than the nationwide change. With that being said, Texas (and California) are two of the states that still have a lot of work to do in getting insurance for all uninsured children that remain.

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The study, released by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, found that Texas still ranks second worst in the nation for uninsured children, even though the rate of Texas children without insurance decreased from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 9.5 percent in 2015. The national average was 4.8 percent in 2015.

Joan Alker, the center’s executive director, said Texas lags behind other big states like California, which has tried to streamline its application process online with its state health insurance exchange, done more outreach to underrepresented communities and expanded Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

“While children saw improvements across age groups, racial categories and income ranges, some groups continue to lag behind,” she said. “For example, Latino children continue to be disproportionately uninsured among the remaining uninsured kids.”

Benjamin Kerman with Atlantic Philanthropies, said decades of experience conducting campaigns to enroll low-income children in Medicaid and CHIP programs have shown the importance of ongoing outreach.

“We need to transfer that experience to campaigns to help families enroll in health insurance exchanges, so they can qualify for subsidies that help them afford coverage for parents and their children,” he said. “As we get ready for the upcoming open enrollment that begins [today] state and local governments, schools, community organizations and advocates must come together to ensure no child goes without coverage.”

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