Proposals would reduce uninsured in Texas

Texas is most likely the uninsured capital of the United States. On average about 12 percent of children are uninsured nationally, but in Texas alone there are 22 percent of kids who are uninsured, that's about 1.5 million uninsured children in Texas, which is really a lot if you think about it. For more than a decade, Texas has been the highest, or at least almost the highest, percentage of uninsured children and that's not something we as Texans should be real proud of. However, now Texas could shed this image of having the nation's highest percentage of uninsured children; that is if the proposals that were advanced to the state Capital last week become a law. Within this law, one proposal would allow certain families who earn more than the income limit for the Children Health Insurance Program to join. Another would allow families to stay in Medicaid for a full year, rather than having to reapply every six months. CHIP could add about 80,000 children to the program and Medicaid could add 258,000 children to the federal-health insurance program.

Personally there are a whole lot of children out there who are uninsured and there should be something that needs to be done about it. I can definitely relate to this because growing up about half of my childhood I was basically uninsured and that can be a scary time. Sure everything will be all fine now when you're healthy but once you come down with something and need some medical attention, and you're also uninsured that's when things get real tough. There are families out there who doesn't qualify for CHIP or Medicaid, but with this proposal it just might give those families a chance of having their children insured and possibly maybe loosen up the restriction a little for CHIP. So hopefully this proposal does pass the state and becomes a law. Besides why should we punish the families who want their children to have a long healthy life?