The fight over whether Cook Children’s can continue offering its health care plan to more than 125,000 families in the Tarrant County area has come to a halt.
District Judge Laurie Eiserloh of Travis County blocked Texas Health and Human Services from finalizing a set of contracts that would drop the Cook Children’s Health Plan, alongside the Driscoll Health Plan in South Texas and the Texas Children’s Health Plan in the Houston area, from Medicaid STAR and CHIP plans starting in September 2025.
The state’s $116 billion Medicaid contract proposal — which excludes the three hospital plans — would force over 1.8 million low-income Texans to change their children’s health coverage to other organizations: Aetna, Molina, UnitedHealthcare, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.
Eiserloh granted the temporary restraining order to the children’s health plans, stating the state’s proposed changes could negatively impact the public.
