Texas
After a Million Texas Kids Were Kicked Off Medicaid, Thousands More Are Still in Limbo
Nearly two out of three Texans who’ve lost Medicaid coverage since last April were children (image via Getty Images)
More than a million Texas kids in low-income families have lost their health insurance since last spring, according to state-reported data. Three out of four Medicaid recipients in Texas are children, and nearly two out of three Texans disenrolled during the post-pandemic “unwinding” process have been kids.
During the pandemic, a provision in a federal COVID relief package blocked states from kicking people off of Medicaid, even if they were no longer eligible. When that federal legislation expired in April 2023, states began reassessing people’s eligibility in a process called unwinding. It’s been chaotic in Texas with large backlogs and extremely long delays for families applying for health care or food assistance.
“Texans in need have been forced to wait several months for their SNAP and/or Medicaid applications to be processed. As a result, countless Texas families will go hungry,” stated a December letter to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) sent by a pair of legislative caucuses, the Texas Women’s Health Caucus and the Texas House Early Childhood Caucus.
That letter implored the agency to resolve the backlogs by this March, but they have only grown.
HHSC Spokesperson Tiffany Young told the Chronicle that staff has moved aggressively to reduce the number of applications in the queue. The good news is that the maximum wait for an application to be assigned to an eligibility worker has gone down – from 120 days in November to less than 40 days in December.
But even with reduced lead time, backlogs grew from December to January. As of Dec. 8, there were 207,465 SNAP applications and 288,939 Medicaid applications waiting to be processed. As of Jan. 26, there were 18,173 more SNAP applications and 64,604 more Medicaid applications in the backlog, per data provided by HHSC spokesperson Jennifer Ruffcorn.
Though the current eligibility crisis is acute, HHSC has chronically failed to meet federal standards for timely processing of SNAP applications since at least 2021, two years before unwinding began, according to the joint caucus letter. (Young said HHSC found no factual errors in that letter.)
Most Medicaid recipients in Texas are kids, and 65% of people kicked off Medicaid since last April were children.
Prior to unwinding, it would have been difficult to directly compare how efficiently states automatically renew coverage, but as part of the process states have reported their “ex parte” renewal rates, meaning the percentage of applications that are renewed automatically based on data. Now, it’s clear that Texas fails to renew coverage more often than any other U.S. state.
The joint caucus letter demanded an answer from HHSC on that point: Why does our system renew eligibility for so few people?
An HHSC spokesperson told the Chronicle the low renewal rate is a side effect of the state’s approach. During unwinding, Texas has reviewed applications from those most likely to no longer qualify first. “Not all states are distributing renewals in the same manner,” Young said.
But Texas is not the only state taking that approach. The research nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) closely tracks how states are handling unwinding and found 16 states are using a hybrid approach that involves frontloading applicants who are unlikely to qualify. KFF reports “several states will focus first on enrollees who have been flagged as potentially ineligible.”
Whatever the cause of Texas’ worst-in-the-nation ex parte renewal rate, the two caucuses want to understand it better. The December letter asked for an analysis on ex parte renewal, adding that HHSC should “quickly address the shortcomings identified in that analysis.” HHSC did not answer whether such an analysis is planned.
The letter penned by the caucuses made several other demands, some of which HHSC met. (For example, HHSC asked for an emergency waiver from the USDA to extend SNAP for people up for recertification until backlogs are eliminated – though the USDA denied that request.) One demand HHSC has so far refused sticks out: The letter called for HHSC to request a waiver from the federal Medicaid agency – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) – to temporarily extend children’s Medicaid for kids in limbo during unwinding. When asked if HHSC had requested that waiver, Young said “no,” adding that HHSC “has implemented dozens of strategies to make the unwinding as smooth as possible for clients and eligibility staff.”
Where does that leave us? Lawmakers in the two caucuses want to know “the full range of investments and policy changes needed to maintain a high-performing eligibility system,” per the letter. We asked HHSC what some of those investments and policy changes might be. Young answered that the 88th Legislature approved 25% salary increases for eligibility staff, plus more than 600 temporary staff to help with unwinding. “Hiring, training and retaining staff are long-term solutions to managing workload and reducing reliance on mandatory overtime,” Young said. “However, it takes a new eligibility adviser a year to be proficient with application processing and overtime is the most readily available tool to address workload quickly.”
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FORT WORTH, TX — When she’s not on the court, Texas forward Justice Carlton is baking cookies.
If you’re wondering if they’re good, just ask her teammates.
“They’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” senior Sarah Graves said.
What started as baking for her teammates and managers for fun has grown into a full-fledged business: J’s Rollin In Dough.
After hours of practice on the basketball court and in the weight room, Carlton spends six hours a day baking cookies to fulfill her orders – or sometimes, simply for fun.
“Anytime that I get out of practice around 5 I’m so happy because I just go home and bake,” Carlton said.
Carlton’s love for baking dates back to her childhood.
“My mom worked over the summers, so when we were out of school it was so boring,” she said. “But the Easy-Bake Oven and the cake pop machine saved my life.”
Over winter break, she and her mom began discussing the possibility of creating a business of her own. They decided she could use her NIL money to form a limited liability company and obtain her food handlers license, so she did just that.
In just three months of business, she’s received more than 100 orders and has gained nearly 1,200 followers on Instagram. She takes orders through a form linked in her Instagram bio.
“It’s funny to see athletes do other things they are passionate about because they put the same focus and intensity into it,” Graves said. “And I can tell she has that for baking.”
Watch March Madness on Fubo
Last month, Carlton baked a batch of cookies for the “College Gameday” staff in hopes of gaining some media attention. The following month, the SEC Network staff ordered a batch at the SEC tournament and tried the cookies on live TV.
“I used basketball as my platform, which (associate director of communications Jeremy Rosenthal) really helped me do,” she said. “I’ve just kind of been getting my name out there, so that’s been something that’s really fun.”
The flavors offered are chocolate chip, cookie monster, cookies n’ cream, red velvet, brown butter salted caramel snickerdoodle and her newest flavor, sugar cookie. She also takes requests.
“She made a banana pudding cookie recently,” freshman Aaliyah Crump said. “I think that one was my favorite.”
While many of her orders come from her teammates, she recently received an order from the Longhorns football team for a team party and for a neuroscience class celebration.
In the future, Carlton hopes to move her business outside of the kitchen and onto the streets.
“I’ve put all my sales money aside and I want to start a food truck,” she said. “I think I would do something like a Crumbl Cookies on wheels.”
For now, Carlton has turned the oven off while she and the Longhorns prepare to face Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on March 28.
Ansley Gavlak is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
The Texas Longhorns haven’t slowed down throughout the 2026 season as they now hold a 29-1 record and continue to push the longest winning streak in program history farther along, as the Longhorns’ winning streak now stands at 27 games.
The Longhorns have strung together consistency and dominance over the last weeks of the season, as recently the Longhorns have become the unanimous top team in the country, earning the top spot, ranking as the No. 1 team in the nation.
And now No. 1 Texas will get back to the gauntlet that is SEC play with a conference series against one of its bitter rivals in the dirt edition of the Lone Star Showdown against the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies. The Longhorns get ready to host, welcoming in the Aggies to Red and Charline McCombs Field with the first game of the series set for Friday, March 27, at 6 p.m. CT.
How to Watch Texas vs. Texas A&M
Who: No. 1 Texas Longhorns and No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies
What: Lone Star Showdown
When: March 27-29
Where: Red and Charline McCombs Field in Austin, TX
TV/Streaming: Friday on SEC Network+, Saturday on ESPN2 and Sunday on ESPN
Radio: Longhorn Radio Network
Meet the Opponent
The Aggies head into the Lone Star Showdown series with a 23-9 overall record and have found success through their two conference series of the season, with a 5-1 record in the SEC. Away from home, the Aggies have split four of their away games with a 2-2 record on the road.
With the flip of the calendar from non-conference to conference play, the Aggies find a rhythm on the field, taking their conference opener against the then No. 17-ranked LSU Tigers on the road 2-1 and followed that up with a sweep at home against the Kentucky Wildcats, outscoring the Wildcats 26-9 over the three-game series.
The Longhorns batting order will battle against an Aggies pitching staff that heads into the weekend series with a 3.10 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. As a whole, the Aggies pitching staff has recorded 193 strikeouts while holding their opponents to a .225 batting average.
The leader of the Aggies pitching staff is sophomore Sydney Lessentine, as her 72 innings pitched is the most by any other Aggies pitcher. In her 19 appearances this season, Lessentine tallies a 2.43 ERA and .82 WHIP along with 60 strikeouts and holds opponents to a .196 batting average.
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