Texas Leads the Country in the Percentage of Children Who are Uninsured

From the Texas Monthly: A recently released report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families shows that Texas accounts for an astounding 20 percent of the nation's uninsured children with a staggering 682,000 kids without health insurance coverage in 2015. But, as the Texas Tribune notes, Texas is improving a bit. There were 888,000 uninsured children in the state in 2013, and the rate of uninsured kids has dropped from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 9.5 percent in 2015, though that's still double the 4.8 percent national average. The only state with a higher rate of uninsured children in 2015 than Texas was Alaska. According to the Georgetown Center's executive director, the blame falls on Texas' shoulders. “I think it speaks to this ongoing resistance and reluctance to embrace the coverage agenda,” Joan Alker told the Tribune. “We know that just because we’re talking about kids doesn’t mean that all states will do the right thing.”