In the category of statistics that bring shame, Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured children — an estimated 1.5 million. Like any other children, the uninsured ones get sick.  

In fact because they generally lack preventive care, uninsured children get sick more often than insured children. And when they do become ill, they tend to become sicker than insured children.  

Due to financial considerations, parents of uninsured children often avoid early treatment in the hope that an illness can be home medicated or will simply go away. If the condition becomes serious and parents have no choice, they seek medical care.  

When they do, they go to the emergency room. And the costs for this unnecessarily expensive indigent treatment are passed on to taxpayers. That's one of the main reasons for the rising tax rate of the University Health System, which provides Bexar County's primary safety net for the uninsured.  

The Children's Health Insurance Program breaks this costly cycle. It covers children of working families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but who still cannot afford — or who work for employers that do not provide — dependant health coverage.  

CHIP currently covers Texas children whose families have earnings up to 200 percent of the poverty level — about $44,000 for a family of four. Advocates want to expand eligibility to 300 percent of the poverty level on a sliding scale, with parents paying a rising proportion of the cost for coverage.  

This is a plan that makes sense from savings in preventive care and averted emergency care alone. But when the federal government offers a significant match for every $1.00 Texas spends on CHIP coverage, it's foolhardy not to raise eligibility. Those are dollars from Washington that should be helping metropolitan health districts and taxpayers across the state.  

Unfortunately, some GOP leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, oppose raising CHIP eligibility. Perry believes the emphasis should be on achieving higher enrollment among children who are already eligible, though this isn't reflected in his budgetary priorities.  

There's no reason why Texas can't do both — try to increase enrollment of children currently eligible and expand eligibility. Covering more uninsured children with CHIP would improve public health and relieve a local tax burden. Not to do so may be politically penny-wise in Austin, but it is also pound-foolish.