Billion dollar blunder: Texas lawmakers failed to restore CHIP cuts
HoustonChronicle.com - Billion dollar blunder: Texas lawmakers failed to restore CHIP cuts: "DESPITE frantic late session efforts by child advocates and their legislative allies, Texas lawmakers once again effectively turned their back on thousands of children of the state's working poor.
After deep social service cuts in 2003 reduced enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program by more than 180,000, small improvements in coverage and funding this year will increase the number of insured children by less than 25,000.
What should disturb Texans most is that, in a state that ranks dead last in the percentage of uninsured children, the lack of state CHIP funding means Texas will not receive an estimated $370 million in federal matching funds for the 2006-2007 biennium. Stacked on top of more than $700 million in federal dollars already lost, it adds up to a health care blunder of more than $1 billion at the expense of the state's most vulnerable citizens.
'I'm embarrassed,' commented state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a supporter of full restoration of CHIP funding. He points out that the Legislature was able to pass a bill in the last two weeks of the session raising $2 billion in revenue, but could not find the money to fully fund children's insurance and take advantage of the federal match that brings in $2.65 for every dollar budgeted by the state."
After deep social service cuts in 2003 reduced enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program by more than 180,000, small improvements in coverage and funding this year will increase the number of insured children by less than 25,000.
What should disturb Texans most is that, in a state that ranks dead last in the percentage of uninsured children, the lack of state CHIP funding means Texas will not receive an estimated $370 million in federal matching funds for the 2006-2007 biennium. Stacked on top of more than $700 million in federal dollars already lost, it adds up to a health care blunder of more than $1 billion at the expense of the state's most vulnerable citizens.
'I'm embarrassed,' commented state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a supporter of full restoration of CHIP funding. He points out that the Legislature was able to pass a bill in the last two weeks of the session raising $2 billion in revenue, but could not find the money to fully fund children's insurance and take advantage of the federal match that brings in $2.65 for every dollar budgeted by the state."
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