child insurance

Advocates say Texas could add 100,000 youths to Children’s Health Insurance Program

(dallasnews.com) - Texas child advocates said Wednesday that the state could add 100,000 youngsters to the rolls of the Children’s Health Insurance Program without a huge budget hit, now that the popular federal program has been renewed.

The Texas Finish Line Campaign, a coalition of three advocacy groups, urged the Legislature to expand the program by letting some families above current income caps “buy in.”

The families would pay “significant” monthly premiums to cover their young, said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities. She said the premiums, based on a sliding scale pegged to income, would defray about half of the state’s costs.

Also, Texas will receive new federal CHIP money, almost enough to cover the rest of the proposed expansion’s cost, she said. The state will be reimbursed for coverage it already extends to legal immigrant children.

The CHIP reauthorization bill signed by President Barack Obama on Wednesday allows states to raise eligibility ceilings. In Texas, a family of four cannot earn more than $44,000.

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