Shared from the 5/2/2019 Houston Chronicle eEdition

Number of uninsured Texas kids ‘disturbing’

Report: Texas leads nation, more than doubling U.S. rate

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Texas leads the nation in both the number and percentage of children without health care.

Texas led the nation in both the number and percentage of children without health insurance in 2017, more than doubling the national rate, according to a study released Wednesday.

The share of Texas children without health insurance is also on the rise, growing to 10.7 percent in 2017 from 9.8 percent the previous year, according to study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national health philanthropy, and the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. All told, more than 830,000 Texas children have no health care coverage.

Patrick Bresette, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas, called the findings “disturbing.”

“We’re very concerned that the state is not taking this seriously enough,” Bresette said. “In a state that has more uninsured children than any other, we are short-cutting their development is so many ways.”

Nationally, about 5 percent of children are uninsured, according to the study, which analyzed Census data. The number of uninsured children is also increasing across the country, rising to 3.9 million in 2017 form 3.6 million in 2016.

What concerns both the researchers and children’s advocacy groups is that after nearly a decade of expanding coverage for children, the numbers are heading the wrong way again, said Elizabeth Lukanen, deputy director of the Minnesota program. Early indicators show that the 2018 numbers could be worse, she added.

“Research has shown that uninsured children have fewer physician visits, less health maintenance for chronic conditions such as asthma,” Lukanen said. “Not surprisingly these things have broader implications for children’s future.”

Leader by far

Children with health insurance are less likely to miss school, more likely to have better overall academic success which ultimately translates into future economic success, research has shown.

Stacked up against other states, Texas’ numbers far exceeded those of other states. Florida followed Texas with the next greatest number of uninsured children at 320,913. When measured by percentages, Wyoming was second to Texas with 10 percent of its children lacking health coverage.

One noteworthy finding is that even as the economy improves, the number of Texas children in families with employer-sponsored health plans has remained mostly unchanged across income levels. Economists had predicted that as more people found employment, those jobs would come with health benefits and lower uninsured rates.

Uninsured adults

Further analysis of the Texas numbers showed that the rate of uninsured children was double the national average across several demographic groups, including Hispanic families, those with low-incomes, and children whose parents have lower levels of education.

Texas also leads the nation in the number and rate of uninsured adults. Those numbers, too, are rising again after improving steadily for years.

Overall, an estimated 4.7 million Texans are without coverage, according to health care data. After falling to a little over 16 percent uninsured in 2016, recent estimates show the rate has climbed to around 19 percent.

“There’s so much more we could be doing that we just aren’t,” said Bresette of the Children’s Defense Fund. jenny.deam@chron.com twitter.com/jenny_deam

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