We recently talked one-on-one with nine Texas families about their experience with Medicaid health insurance. 

We heard about a nine-year-old who loves football, a teenager who always cooks the family dinner, and a mom juggling the demands of working as a school paraprofessional while raising two young kids with her husband. Some of the kids faced extra challenges, including autism, Hashimoto’s disease, and a 90-day stay in the NICU.

These interviews are just part of our broader research, but they provide a window into the program’s successes and challenges. Many of the points parents raised echoed the findings of the recent Medicaid “External Quality Review” report published by the state.

These were some of the themes we heard from Texas families:

1) Medicaid health insurance is a lifeline, providing children and pregnant women with access to care that many could not otherwise afford. 

Several parents sang the praises of the doctors they are able to see because of Medicaid, including pediatricians who have served their kids for years. Families were thankful their children could get asthma inhalers, vaccines, support for a kidney disorder, and other care thanks to Medicaid. 

Some of the parents get their own insurance at work but can’t afford to add their kids, so they are grateful for Children’s Medicaid. Other parents did not have their own insurance, so they relied on Medicaid to cover their pregnancy. One Houston mother said she started out with a healthy pregnancy and received “exceptional” care through Medicaid when she developed preeclampsia. 

Repeating a sentiment we heard multiple times, one parent said she would be “bankrupt” without Medicaid. 

2) The greatest challenges families face are finding providers and specialists who accept Medicaid, particularly in rural communities, resulting in long wait times and significant travel.

The most common frustrations centered on finding care rather than maintaining coverage. For example, one mom said it was relatively easy to find a pediatrician who takes Medicaid when they lived in Dallas, but it’s much harder since they moved to a smaller town. Parents particularly struggled to find and schedule appointments with specialists, with families waiting months and months to see a psychologist or orthopedist, for instance. 

3) Families want Medicaid to be easier to navigate through more accurate provider information, clearer communication, and better support connecting them to care.

Inaccurate provider directories were a recurring problem for the families we interviewed. They told us about outdated directories that led them to disconnected phone numbers, providers who had moved or retired, and doctors who no longer accept Medicaid. 

Families often made the system work through extraordinary persistence. Parents called multiple providers, relied on Facebook groups for recommendations, drove to offices in person, and spent hours navigating the system. Families shouldn’t have to become experts in Medicaid just to find a doctor accepting new patients.

These interviews reinforce what we see in the data and what we hear from communities across Texas. Medicaid health insurance plays a vital role in supporting healthy kids and healthy pregnancies — but state policymakers need to strengthen the provider network and make sure parents have access to clear and accurate information. We look forward to working with you to address these challenges.

Texans Care for Children gratefully acknowledges Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., for their financial support of this publication. The opinions expressed in this document are those of Texans Care for Children and do not necessarily reflect the views of Methodist Healthcare Ministries.