Texas Health Care Advocates Urge Lawmakers Not To Cut CHIP Program Funding Amid Budget Woes

Thousands of Texas health care advocates on Sept. 8 lobbied state lawmakers, demanding that the state's CHIP program be spared from budget cuts as the state Legislature considers how to offset a state budget deficit of between $5 billion and $12 billion, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. After receiving criticism for failing to enroll enough children into the program in 1999 and 2000, the state "embarked on an outreach program" that "worked so well that it helped cause" a program budget deficit of about $60 million as of August, the Star-Telegraph reports. Enrollment in Texas' CHIP program increased by 95% between fiscal year 2001 and FY 2002. State officials have asked lawmakers to give the program a $141 million funding increase for the next budget cycle. "Children have used these services more intensively than either we or the health plans anticipated," Jason Cooke, director of Medicaid/CHIP operations in Texas, said. Allied Communities of Tarrant, a not-for-profit advocacy group, has been urging lawmakers not to "ca[p] or cut" the program's funding for 2003, and along with the Texas Industrial Area Foundation, a network of organizations that trains community activists, is gathering 500,000 signatures of people who are against program cuts. The two groups on Sept. 8 presented 250,000 signatures to lawmakers and candidates running for state office (Mitchell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9/8).