Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The 23-year-old Amarillo resident lost her manager's job at a Chick-fil-A restaurant recently, but thanks to Medicaid she and her 4-year-old twin daughters have maintained their health insurance - at least for the next six months.

"It's very hard to get in or to get kids enrolled in CHIP," Bible said of Medicaid and of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The numbers that the state and advocates for low-income Texans provide appear to support Bible's assessment of the state-funded programs.

In Potter County, which like the rest of Texas has a large percentage of uninsured residents, 1 in 5 children has no health insurance, according to figures compiled by Karl Eschbach, the state demographer of Texas. Even in Randall County, the seventh wealthiest county in Texas, 15.7 percent of its residents 19 and younger don't have insurance.

Statewide, 1 in 4 children, or a total of 15 million, is uninsured and the state leads the nation in the percentage of uninsured children. And getting enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP won't get much easier, at least in the next two years.

In a 19-hour budget debate on Friday, House members voted to increase the CHIP coverage to $1.5 billion in 2010 and $1.8 billion in 2011, said Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton, who in the 2007 session filed a bill to increase the number of children enrolled in the program.

The budget the House ultimately approved over the weekend could increase the number of children in the CHIP program to 575,000 from the current 523,000, Heflin said.

Although Heflin and other lawmakers who represent uninsured Texans wanted a higher number of children enrolled in CHIP, they are pleased with the increase the House approved.

"This is a step in the right direction and we'll make sure we get some children insured," Heflin said. "It will still be tough for a lot of families to get in, but under the circumstances with the down economy I think this is as far as we can go on this economic cycle."

The funding the House approved is not final because the budget must be reconciled by representatives from both the House and the Senate.

That explains why advocates continue lobbying lawmakers to adequately fund CHIP and Medicaid.

"High numbers of uninsured children have a negative affect on local communities and businesses by impacting our taxes, current and future workforce, and competitiveness," Donald Lee, executive director of the Texas Conference of Urban Counties, wrote this month to Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

"It is a sad day when the state with the leading economy in the U.S. is also leading the nation in children without health insurance," Bruce LaBoon, director emeritus of the Greater Houston Partnership, said recently.

Besides seeking more money, advocates also are asking the Legislature to extend coverage to 12 months from the current six.

Bible hopes the Legislature agrees.

"It is a problem staying on Medicaid," she said. "You pretty much have to start all over again and if they lose your application, like they lost mine, you could be taken off and then it would be hard to get back in."