Texas CHIP Bill Couldn’t Be Revived
The Houston Chronicle reported that Texas lawmakers couldn't save a bill that would have expanded the Children's Health Insurance Program. "Lawmakers entered the endgame of the 81st Legislature Thursday still struggling to avoid a special session on windstorm insurance - while also trying in vain to salvage expansion of health care for low-income Texas children," the Houston Chronicle reported.
The CHIP bill would have made "available subsidized health insurance for an additional 80,000 Texas children by raising eligibility for CHIP to 300 percent of poverty, or a maximum income of $66,540 a year for a family of four." The paper noted, "CHIP and windstorm insurance reform were among hundreds of measures killed earlier this week by an extended House debate of minor bills to avoid controversial voter identification legislation. The Senate worked until about 3 a.m. Thursday reviving many of the dead bills, like CHIP, by putting them on other bills as amendments." The Chronicle added, "Then late Thursday, the House sent the bill back to the Senate, claiming the CHIP provision to revive the amendment was not germane, all but killing it" (Ratcliffe, 5/29).
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