Say the words "Texas" and "health insurance," and it's pretty certain that "worst," "last" or "lost chances" will follow close behind. Last year, though, Texas leaders got fed up with the selfishly politicized plight of uninsured children and made two powerful changes.

The results are better than the state's health commission could have imagined. After an unpromising start, the Legislature changed a bad law and partially restored CHIP, the federal/state child health insurance program for the working poor. Then hospitals, schools and businesses collaborated with child health activists to get eligible youngsters signed up.

Here's how they've done: By April, when the reforms were fully in effect, 108,914 children had joined the thrifty CHIP program. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission had predicted a grand total of 129,000 new enrollees — by 2009.

After years of uninsured children needlessly becoming sick or dying, Texas lawmakers, advocates and business leaders have reason to be proud. They ought to take a moment to savor a job well done. Then they should lose not a second more before completing the task: About 1.5 million Texas children remain uninsured.

Making the connection between parents, eligible children and affordable health coverage requires several pieces of policy machinery to move at once. Restoring CHIP's 12-month enrollment period was an essential cog. Another was allowing eligible families to have $10,000 rather than $5,000 in savings, and to deduct child-care costs when calculating their income. Families no longer have to re-enroll every six months or trade their economic safety cushion for insurance.

After the restoration passed, advocates had to tackle the nagging problem of underenrollment. In fall 2007, the Children's Defense Fund joined Houston hospitals and the Houston Independent School District  to reduce the problem.

Under the 100 Percent Campaign, as it's called, HISD included a simple insurance question on all its enrollment forms. Then local hospitals hired HISD specialists to study those forms, flagging every uninsured child and pinpointing the most suitable coverage — whether CHIP, Medicaid or a Harris County Gold Card.

To connect children with insurance, businesses, including HEB food stores, and school leaders joined in. Principal Maria Moreno of Gulfton's Las Americas Middle School put the parents of uninsured kids on a weekly auto-call. The most recent message promises the calls will stop when parents sign their children up for insurance.

Texas CHIP enrollment has hit its highest level since January 2004.

Most Texans now know that CHIP and Medicaid are cost-effective, and we see that efforts to enroll children can work.

But we still need to cover all of Texas' 1.5 million uninsured minors. It is time to separate the words "Texas," "health insurance" and "lost chances" for good.