Tens of thousands of Texas newborns have been kicked off Medicaid during unwinding so far (image via Getty Images)
Ninety-five thousand newborns, twice as many toddlers and preschoolers, and more than 1.3 million Texas children overall have been kicked off Medicaid since April 2023.
The latest public data from Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that, in addition to those Texas kids from low-income families who have lost their health insurance, another 195,000 kids are still in limbo with pending applications.
“If you measure a society by how it treats its children, then Greg Abbott’s Texas is a massive failure,” state Rep. John Bucy wrote on X Tuesday. “This is a failure of leadership – and our kids are hurting because of it.”
So how did we get here? During the COVID-19 pandemic, a law passed by Congress blocked all states from kicking people off Medicaid, even if they became ineligible during that time. Last April, that federal legislation expired, and every state began reassessing eligibility in a process called “unwinding.”