CHIP Press Conference On Right Now

Rep. Garnett Coleman (D-Houston) and a large number of House Democrats are holding a press conference on CHIP right now. Watch it here. [Supporting materials including the press release are over in Capitol Annex's Press Room, here.]
Coleman and several other members have filed legislation to restore coverage through CHIP to hundreds of thousands of Texas kids.

“We must restore CHIP coverage for our children,” Rep. Coleman said. “This is a no-brainer. The people of Texas have spoken, and it’s time for us to act.”

Thanks to HB 2292 in 2003, the state significantly reduced CHIP funding, which increased the difficulty of enrolling and helped to create that “permanent wall” keeping kids from the program we told you about last fall. Almost 200,000 kids have lost coverage since.

Rep. Elliott Naishtat says that has had a great impact on disenrollment:

“The policies that were enacted by the 78th Legislature in September 2003 have — by far — had the greatest impact on CHIP disenrollment,” Rep. Elliott Naishtat said.

Here is the kicker: restoring the CHIP program to the enrollment levels that existed before 2003 would not cost the state any money.

From Rep. Coleman’s press release:

According to data collected from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), during the 2006 budget year, the State of Texas left unspent $400 million in state funds dedicated for CHIP and Children’s Medicaid. Those dollars could easily cover every child that has lost CHIP coverage since 2003.

Woah. Rep Veronica Gonzales has a great commenta bout that:

“I believe we must put our children and our families first, and my bill will move forward with positive change for CHIP,” Rep. Veronica Gonzales said.

Rep. Coleman joined dozens of other House members on Wednesday to advocate and raise awareness for the repealing of the restrictive CHIP policies.

Other statements:

“Not restoring CHIP to its previous levels is fiscally irresponsible.”—Rep. Paula Hightower Pierson

“The average loss of CHIP coverage of the counties in my district is 62% — that is a huge loss.”—Rep. Joe Heflin

“In Harris County, we saw a decrease in enrollment from 93,901 in 2003, to 66,696, a total loss of over 27,205. This is unacceptable.”—Rep. Borris Miles.

More To Come!

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