22 Groups Urge TX Leaders Not to Cut Staff Signing Texans Up for Health Insurance & Hunger Relief

For Immediate Release
Contact: Peter Clark, [email protected], 512-473-2274

Austin - Today, 22 organizations sent a letter to state leaders expressing concern about proposed state health cuts that could create delays for Texans signing up for health insurance and other services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter urged Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen not to move forward with cuts to 742 Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) staff positions that help children, pregnant women, Texans with disabilities, seniors, and eligible caregivers enroll in health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The letter warns that the proposed cuts could also create enrollment delays in Healthy Texas Women, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

A wide variety of Texas organizations signed the letter, including the Texas Medical Association, Texas Hospital Association, Texas Academy of Family Physicians, Texas Pediatric Society, National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Texas, Texas Women's Healthcare Coalition, Autism Society of Texas, and others.

“Now, more than ever, my patients and Texas families need the assurance that when they need health coverage through Medicaid, the support to help them enroll will be there,” said Tammy Camp, MD, President of the Texas Pediatric Society. “Texas pediatricians sincerely hope that state leadership will do everything in their power to keep funding cuts to enrollment support off the table.”

“It would be a bad idea at any time to make it harder for Texas kids to get health insurance and see their doctor or make it harder for pregnant women to get health care,” said Katie Mitten, Health Policy Associate at Texans Care for Children, one of the organizations that signed the letter. “But it’s a particularly bad idea when we see the state’s uninsured rate going through the roof during this pandemic.”

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Texas had the highest uninsured rate in the nation for all ages (18.4 percent), non-elderly adults (24.5%), and children (12.7 percent) in 2019, numbers that were far worse than any other state and far worse than the Texas numbers the year before. Since the pandemic struck, the Texas uninsured rate has only grown higher.

“It feels like we’re going one step forward and two steps back,” said Dr. Laura Guerra-Cardus, Texas Deputy Director for Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, one of the organizations that signed the letter. “State leaders are showing a growing interest in tackling the state’s uninsured rate next session, but at the same time the state could move us backwards with these proposed health cuts.”

"Protecting client services funds, including in the women’s health programs, is a step in the right direction," said Evelyn Delgado, Chair of the Texas Women's Healthcare Coalition, one of the groups that signed the letter, and President/Executive Director of Healthy Futures of Texas. "But, cutting enrollment services could still harm clients, quite possibly leading to delays in processing applications and enrolling pregnant women, enrolling HTW applicants, and transferring new moms to HTW. Especially now during a global health pandemic, where so many have lost or are at risk of losing healthcare coverage through their employers, safety net programs are crucial."  

Earlier this year, in response to the state’s revenue shortfall, the three state leaders directed HHSC and other state agencies to identify potential cuts in the current fiscal year. HHSC’s original response to state leaders included direct cuts to health services, including women’s health. The agency’s new updated proposal excludes those cuts to direct services but still proposes the cuts to eligibility and enrollment staff positions, as well as other health cuts.

The new HHSC proposal warns that the cuts could make it harder for the state to meet federal standards for enrolling individuals in programs in a timely manner.

“State leaders have other tools they can use to deal with the state’s revenue shortall, including using the Rainy Day Fund, urging Congress to pass additional pandemic relief funding for states, accepting Medicaid expansion funding, and exploring other revenue sources,” said Anne Dunkelberg, Associate Director of Every Texan (formerly known as CPPP), one of the groups that signed the letter. “Instead of making it harder for Texans to get health care and SNAP during a pandemic, our elected officials should use the other tools they have for resolving the revenue shortfall.”

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