(Fort Worth, Texas – May 9, 2025)—Cook Children's expresses profound concern Today over a looming crisis that threatens health care access for Texas' most vulnerable children. A staggering 1.8 million children and expectant mothers statewide, including 125,000 within Cook Children’s Health Plan’s Tarrant County service area, face potential disruptions in their health coverage due to the current situation. 

This precarious situation will have devastating consequences for 10,000 children with complex medical conditions, including 170 relying on ventilators and 1,700 who use wheelchairs. Beyond the direct impact on these children and their families, the repercussions extend to our community's economic stability, potentially costing 400 jobs in Tarrant County and up to 2,000 jobs across the state within Texas-based children’s health plans if this issue is not resolved. 

Despite hopeful signs earlier this session, with bill language from Representative Charlie Geren and Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa making its way to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, recent legislative inaction suggests a willingness not to address this critical matter during the current legislative session as intended by the courts. This is an urgent situation demanding immediate attention. June 2, 2025, is the critical deadline.

 At the heart of this crisis is a flawed procurement process by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) that inexplicably favored large, for-profit, out-of-state national plans over established local children’s health plans like Cook Children's, Driscoll Children's Hospital, and Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. These Texas-based organizations possess a proven track record of delivering high-quality care while achieving positive patient outcomes and maintaining high member and physician, and provider satisfaction. HHSC’s process failed to adequately consider past performance, quality of care, and health plan member satisfaction, leading to this deeply concerning outcome. 

The potential consequences of inaction are dire, inevitably leading to further costly litigation and, more importantly, threatening to disrupt the vital health care services that countless Texas children and their families depend upon.

 The question remains: why has decisive action not been taken? 

For more than 107 years, Cook Children's mission has been unwavering: to do everything for the health and well-being of the children we serve. This commitment compels us to continue fighting tirelessly for these children and their families. The stakes are simply too high to do otherwise. Our state's leaders have a critical 24-day window to rectify this flawed procurement process. We urge them to prioritize Texas children by investing in their health care and ensuring local, proven children’s health care providers can continue serving our communities. Allowing the current HHSC contract awards to stand will drain millions of dollars from our state, benefiting out-of-state shareholders instead of Texas children and businesses. Cook Children’s alone reinvests $200 million annually in our community, demonstrating our commitment. We implore our leaders to choose Texas children and Texas-based, non-profit children’s health plans over out-of-state, for-profit interests. The exclusion of dedicated children's health plans from this process demands explanation, as the health and stability of our health care system are at stake. 

The time for action is now! Before it’s too late.

Last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) denied Cook Children’s Health Plan a renewed contract to serve its membership.

Doctors say that ending the health plan would eliminate a crucial resource for an already underserved population, potentially creating significant challenges in accessing necessary medical care.

“Our lawmakers need to look at this situation and say, do you want to work with the health plan to better serve that community,” said Taylor Louden, M.D., medical director of emergency services.

To learn more and support our efforts, please visit SaveCookChildrensHealthPlan.com.

Michael, who is 24 now, stopped moving his extremities at the age of 18 months and was diagnosed with a debilitating form of cerebral palsy.

Lynn describes her first few months after she learned Michael had cerebral palsy as “fuzzy.” She lived in a terrified blur of emotions and cried for the first year after learning of his diagnosis.

But through her tears Lynn kept her resolve, beginning with one decision – Michael would be transferred from the family home in Abilene to Fort Worth to be treated by Cook Children’s. They then moved to Fort Worth to stay closer to Cook Children’s.

“To see your baby crawling, trying to learn to walk and then all of a sudden he’s not moving, was horrible,” Lynn said. “We insisted he be transferred. If he had not gotten transferred Michael would not be alive. I believe that with all my heart. I would not go anywhere else.”

The first month he stayed in the Pediatric ICU. Since then Michael's been seen by a plethora of specialties at Cook Children's, including Infectious Disease, Neurosciences, the Heart Center, Radiology, Surgery and Rehabilitation Services for issues ranging from pneumonia to cerebral palsy.

Lynn stopped working to stay home with Michael and her early attempts to get her son on Medicaid were declined.

“We got a letter that said because Medicaid had turned us down he was automatically approved for CHIP. I believe we were waiting to get on [Medically Dependent Children Program (MDCP)]. Considering Michael’s extensive needs (medications, tube feeding supplies and everything else), CHIP saved us,” Lynn said. “There were prescription co-pays but they were very reasonable, and we were able to continue seeing doctors at Cook Children’s.”

Without CHIP, Michael may not have received the care he needed to cover the multiple specialties he required as a young child.

Currently, CHIP funding expired almost 100 days ago. While Congress recently provided temporary funding to the United States, many are likely to run out of funds and will send termination notices in the coming weeks to children’s hospital patients and others who have CHIP.

To learn more how you can help #SaveCHIP and “Speak Now For Kids”, visit this site to learn more.

“It was a long time ago when we needed CHIP,” Lynn said. “I do remember feeling so proud that Texas would never let a child go uninsured. Clearly things have changed. It took about five years for Michael to get on MDCP and then at that time, he became eligible for Medicaid. I am not sure I would have been able to keep Michael alive without CHIP.”

To learn more about Michael’s story, click here.