Local and state experts on children's health insurance asked area residents Tuesday to do something -- anything -- to help insure Texans.
More than 1.5 million children in Texas, including more than 63,900 in the Brazos Valley, are uninsured, officials with a statewide campaign said.
Many families that are eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program or Medicaid are not enrolled, they said.
Project Unity founder Jeannie McGuire, the regional director for the Texas Finish Line campaign, said residents and community organizations could help get the word out.
"We have a gap in that outreach and that education," she said.
But it's not just a lack of education that keeps kids from being insured, McGuire said. The state system is also badly in need of reform.
Children's Medicaid requires parents to re-enroll their kids every six months. Barbara Best, Texas director of the Children's Defense Fund, said the process was burdensome for parents and created a backlog for the state.
State officials struggle to process more than 3.8 million renewal applications each year, she said.
Children's Medicaid provides health care coverage to the poorest families in Texas. The Children's Health Insurance Program -- CHIP -- covers working families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.
To receive CHIP benefits, Best said, a family of four must earn between $21,200 and $42,400.
The strict income limits create a problem, she said, citing families that have asked for pay cuts from their employers because they earned too much to qualify but not enough to buy private insurance.
"Most uninsured children have at least one working parent but don't have employer-provided health insurance," Best said. "It's really tough choices: Do I pay for medicine or prescriptions, or do I pay the rent and keep food on the table?"
Campaign officials said a sliding-scale system that allows parents to buy into state programs at a cost based on their income would help provide health insurance to many families.
McGuire said people could do two things: Help parents enroll their kids and contact their elected officials to ask for reform.
"Many families are faced with incredible hurdles to get help," she said. "Our children's health is at stake."
For more information about the Texas Finish Line Campaign, or to get involved, go to http://texaskidswin.org. To learn about children's health insurance coverage, visit www.chipmedicaid.org.
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