A report released this week by a major Hispanic civil rights group found that Texas has reported the nation’s highest rate of uninsured children for 19 consecutive years — Latino kids represent a disproportionately large share.
Experts also fear the problem is about to get far worse.
According to the UnidosUS study, 14% of Texas children lack health insurance. Of those roughly 1 million uninsured minors, an astonished 66% of them are Latino. In contrast, 6% of children nationwide lack health insurance, according to the study.
“Being born in Texas more than doubles the likelihood that a child will grow up uninsured — pushing families into impossible choices between paying for rent, groceries or medical care,” UnidosUS Texas State Director Eric Holguín said in a statement.
San Antonio is among the Texas metros where the problem is most profound. Around 74% of the city’s uninsured children are Latino.
UnidosUS expects the numbers to rise as the effects of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill begin to be felt this year. Among other changes, the president’s signature bill includes policies that will kick immigrants off of public benefits, including access to health care, along with federal funding cuts to programs that help people register for insurance via the Affordable Care Act.
The cuts, especially to programs that help register families for public assistance, come as UniodUS’s research shows that more than 8 in 10 uninsured children qualify for but are not enrolled in Medicaid, CHIP or federal Premium Tax Credits that help families buy their own insurance.
“Texas has the financial resources needed to cover its children, yet at a moment when federal policy changes and cuts to enrollment assistance threaten to leave even more Texas kids uninsured, state leaders continue to fail to act,” Holguín said. “That’s not just a policy failure, it’s a cost-of-living crisis that Gov. Abbott continues to ignore, which in turn will impact the state’s future.”
To address the plight of Texas kids, UnidosUS is calling on state lawmakers to streamline Medicaid and CHIP enrollment. The organization also wants legislators to strengthen public-private partnerships to help families enroll and expand Medicaid coverage for low-income adults, which would boost child enrollment.
“If [Republican Gov. Greg] Abbott truly wants to protect children, he should start by ensuring barriers to health insurance for these children come down and accepting Medicaid expansion — something well within his control,” Holguín said. “Other states are taking action while Texas continues to fall further behind.
Texas is one of only 10 U.S. states that hasn’t accepted the federal Medicaid expansion.
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