Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Misty Shores is excited about her May wedding, except for one thing: She's worried that after she's married, her three children won't have health insurance.

Her $35,000 salary qualifies them for the Children's Health Insurance Program, but with her future husband's income, they'd exceed the eligibility limit — but still wouldn't be able to afford the insurance her job offers, she said.

Shores traveled from her home in Hurst, near Dallas, to ask lawmakers Thursday to approve a CHIP buy-in option that would enable certain families who earn too much for the program to pay to join.

"We fall in the cracks between being able to get help and being able to survive on our own," said Shores, 29. Her fiancé, Jason James, 27, was recently laid off from a job at a printing warehouse and has nearly finished training to become a truck driver, she said.

The House Committee on Human Services on Thursday considered more than two dozen bills on CHIP and Medicaid, including ones that would add a CHIP buy-in option and let families stay in children's Medicaid for a year at a time, rather than having to reapply every six months. The panel didn't vote on the measures.

Supporters of a buy-in program say it's a good way to cover some of the 1.5 million uninsured Texas children, but opponents say they'd rather reach out to the more than 700,000 children who are already eligible for CHIP or Medicaid but not enrolled.

Two Central Texans on the panel, state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, the chairman, and Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, said they strongly support the CHIP buy-in program and the 12-month Medicaid enrollment period. Naishtat said the longer enrollment period "would remove one of the main reasons why children, in the long run, lose their Medicaid coverage."

But Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, also a member of the panel, said he's hesitant to expand Medicaid enrollment because he wants to ensure that those in the program meet requirements.

"I just want to make sure the folks who are truly in need are the ones who get the help," Hughes said.
 
About 456,000 children are currently enrolled in CHIP, and about 1.9 million are enrolled in children's Medicaid.

Lawmakers in 2007 expanded the CHIP enrollment period from six months to 12. Doing the same for Medicaid would enroll 258,000 more children and would cost $297 million in state dollars over two years, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

Amarillo resident Elizabeth Bible, 23, a single mother of twin 4-year-olds who have been on Medicaid since birth, said her daughters have had several lapses in coverage because she has had problems applying.

Bible, a manager at Chick-fil-A who drove nine hours to testify in Austin, said that on several occasions, she submitted the required paperwork, only to be told it was never received. "It makes me just want to give up."