For the children

McALLEN — The Children’s Defense Fund wants eligible Rio Grande Valley families to obtain, use and renew state health insurance for their children.

The fund started a campaign this week as part of Children’s Health Insurance Awareness Month to enroll more children in Texas’ Children’s Medicaid or CHIP program. With the help of local school districts, clinics and other agencies, the fund hopes to sign up thousands of children for health insurance, said fund officers during a Thursday news conference at El Milagro Clinic.

The state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is available to families who make too much money for Medicaid coverage.

Proportionally, Texas is home to the most uninsured children in the nation, with 1.5 million or one in five children without adequate private health care. Of that 1.5 million, about 850,000 children are eligible for CHIP but do not receive it, said Barbara Best, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund.

In the Valley, less than 30,000 of nearly 84,000 children eligible for CHIP coverage are enrolled, according to numbers the fund received last month from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. The need for health insurance is urgent — an average family spends about $900 a month on health care, Best said.

“It’s time to set them up,” she said.

The fund is already working with about 10 school districts in Hidalgo County and plans to enlist more through this campaign, said Luisa Saenz, director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Rio Grande Valley chapter. Nurses in charge of school districts’ nursing programs said their districts have been able to sign up many children for insurance, but many more need to enroll.

The Texas Legislature approved changes to the children’s health insurance program during its last session, making it easier for children to receive health insurance.

Parents are now only required to enroll their children once a year instead of twice a year, and the 90-day waiting period has been lifted, said State Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, who serves on the fund’s advisory council.

But if people don’t use the health insurance, the state will lose money to provide it, she said. For every dollar the state spends on children’s health insurance, the federal government gives almost $3. If the state doesn’t spend the money on children’s health care, the federal money will be given to another state, Gonzales said.

Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.