Care of Our Future Generation

As stated in the Austin American Statesmen, due to past cuts in money spent on children's health insurance, Texas legislative leaders are now in a quandary as to how much federal money Texas will be allowed to put into a new program that will add 120,000 children to a proposed health insurance plan. The issue is now being pushed and discussed in Washington. The new program will combine state and federal dollars to provide health insurance for children in families that might be considered poor or families that are in poverty but cannot qualify for Medicaid simply because they make too much money to do so. It is good to see the State addressing such topics, especially since Texas was not even spending all of its children's health insurance annual allotment. Insurance is very important for our youth to grow and become healthy adults, and Texas would benefit much from increasing spending on children's insurance.

The question on how much to increase spending was vaguely described in the article. Figures ranged from an additional $35 billion raised from the increased price in cigarettes, or President Bush's more meager proposal of $5 billion. However, the article concludes that no matter the figure, the finally passing of the program may have little effect in overall children's insurance spending if the Texas legislature refuses to input additional resources.