Testimony to the House Select Committee on Health Reform on Reducing the Texas Uninsured Population

This week, the new Texas House Select Committee on Health Reform begins hearings on its ambitious and important list of interim charges, from tackling health care cost growth to increasing health care coverage. In creating the committee, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan has put a much-needed focus on health care policy.

Every Texan’s Anne Dunkelberg and Stacey Pogue shared with the committee the three top ways Texas can reduce its worst-in-the-nation uninsured rate:

• Use federal funds to provide Medicaid to “working but poor” adults — both parents and adults without any dependent kids at home.
• Remove barriers to enrollment/renewal of currently eligible individuals in Texas Medicaid.
• Maintain record-breaking enrollment at HealthCare.Gov. Texas is already poised to do so.

View the full testimony from Associate Director and Health & Food Justice Team Director Anne Dunkelberg, and Senior Policy Analyst Stacey Pogue here.