The WalletHub study analyzed all 50 states and the District of Columbia across various metrics: insurance rates, vaccination rates, obesity rates, healthcare costs, oral health, and more. Texas ranked 50th, ahead only of Mississippi.
“The quality of children’s health care should be one of the most important considerations for parents when deciding where to live,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo in the study.
The state also ranked 50th for kids’ general health and access to healthcare despite having the largest pediatric hospital in the country, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, with 950 beds. Rural areas with fewer resources to provide care are a pressure point for statewide healthcare accessibility. The issue has been a hot topic for lawmakers who continuously seek solutions to the problem presented by the state’s sheer size and population concentrations. In early April, Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $6 million in grants for rural hospitals.
"Rural healthcare is critical for the continued health and well-being of Texans across our great state,” said Abbott in a press release. "This $6.25 million in grant funding will provide qualifying hospitals with the financial support they need to keep serving Texans in rural communities. I thank the Texas Health and Human Sciences Commission for their hard work to help rural hospitals across Texas increase access to care and address the unique rural health challenges. A stronger rural Texas means a stronger, more resilient future for all Texans."
The grant distribution came as the measles count stretched above 400. But as of April 8, there are 505 measles cases in Texas, 495 are from unvaccinated patients and 351 of which are children. The outbreak, spawning from rural West Texas where it is primarily, but not exclusively, concentrated, is a prime example of how quickly a rural community’s healthcare system can be overworked. The children with more life-threatening cases of measles are being transported for treatment at a Lubbock children’s hospital.
“We’re in a public health shortage area,” Gordon Mattimoe, director of the Andrews County Health Department, told the Texas Tribune. “You have to think outside the box.”
The children being treated in Lubbock are also being treated for vitamin A toxicity. In conjunction with cod liver oil, the vitamin has been pushed as a treatment for measles by Kennedy. After a second unvaccinated child died from the eliminated disease within 60 days, Kennedy touched down in Texas to attend the funeral.
Vaccination Rates Decrease In Texas, Low Insurance Rates Are Not Helping
The measles crisis occurs at a time when vaccination rates are decreasing nationally, notably in Dallas County. The measles vaccine is highly effective, but doctors cite a recent shift in the attitude towards vaccines, and some say it could stem from COVID-19."We've definitely seen politicization of vaccinations and people who are anti-vaxxers because of [the pandemic],” Dr. Philip Huang, director and health authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department, told the Observer at the end of February.
Dr. Lise Youngblade, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciencesat Colorado State University, told WalletHub that the recent resistance to vaccines is a hurdle for children’s healthcare.
“One of the biggest changes [in children’s preventive care] in my opinion has been an increase in “anti-vaccine” dialogue and behavior,” Youngblade said. “This is unfortunate because childhood vaccination has been one of the biggest success stories in public health and modern medicine and is a critical cornerstone in preventive care. There is a tremendous amount of storytelling about the dangers of vaccinations on media platforms that appears compelling yet is not backed by research evidence.”
In response to the crisis, Garland Independent School District began offering the measles vaccine to uninsured children for free. Texas ranked last for the number of insured children. The statistic is matched in Dallas County, which is one of the least insured counties in the country for people under 65. In 2024, 14.88% of children under 19 in Dallas County were uninsured, according to a study from SmartAsset.
“Research shows that health insurance is linked to better health outcomes for people of all ages because it improves access to care, which in turn is linked to better health status,” said Youngblade. “Health insurance also has an economic benefit because it serves as a long-term safeguard mechanism, dispersing health risks across larger populations and preventing families from falling into or returning to poverty due to the costs of catastrophic illness.”
