{"id":12574,"date":"2020-12-31T17:09:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12574"},"modified":"2020-12-31T17:09:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:09:47","slug":"texas-families-struggle-to-keep-ahead-of-pandemic-hardships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12574","title":{"rendered":"Texas families struggle to keep ahead of pandemic hardships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gr-72549-1-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gr-72549-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gr-72549-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gr-72549-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><strong><em>In Texas, 20% of families report slight or no confidence in their ability to pay rent or mortgage on time due to the pandemic, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Photo: RobinHiggins\/Pixabay<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By ROZ BROWN<\/strong><br>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Congress has passed a new stimulus package that will provide most Texas residents with an extra $600 \u2013 but that may not go far for families struggling with food insecurity and pandemic-related mental-health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aecf.org\/resources\/kids-families-and-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;shows Texas has the worst rates in the country for health-insurance coverage, both for children and adults. Amy Knop-Narbutis, research and data director for the group&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/everytexan.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Every Texan<\/a>, said that\u2019s due to public-policy choices that Texas lawmakers could address in the next legislative session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTexas is one of the few states that elected not to expand Medicaid,\u201d she said, \u201cand if they were to do so, we estimate an additional 2.2 million uninsured Texas adults would be covered. And we know when parents are covered, their children are more likely to be covered, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 2000 to 2010, Texas accounted for half of the U.S. child-population growth. Narbutis said between 275,000 and 355,000 uninsured Texas children are eligible for Medicaid or the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Kids Count policy report examined how households with children are faring during the pandemic, based on surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Leslie Boissiere, vice president for external affairs at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aecf.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Casey Foundation<\/a>, said the pandemic is prompting many parents to experience an overwhelming sense of pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re also struggling with their mental and their physical health,\u201d she said. \u201cOne in three has postponed getting needed medical care, and one in five has experienced depression since the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, since the pandemic began, 16% of Texas adults with children say they \u201csometimes or often\u201d don\u2019t have enough to eat. The report made multiple recommendations, including distributing federal relief money with racial equity in mind, and for COVID vaccinations to be free of charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Congress has passed a new stimulus package that will provide most Texas residents with an extra $600 \u2013 but that may not go far for families struggling with food insecurity and pandemic-related mental-health issues. A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation&nbsp;shows Texas has the worst [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12575,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions\/12575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}