(HOUSTON) — State Representative candidate Hubert Vo today called on the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to restore funding for the state's popular Children's Health Insurance Program during its scheduled meeting Monday in Austin.

"If a Texas criminal has the right to see a lawyer, a Texas child should have the right to see a doctor," Vo said.

State leaders have stripped nearly 150,000 eligible children from the program in the past year, and an additional 125,000 risk losing their coverage on September 1.

Vo said the deep cuts in Texas' CHIP rolls have dragged down the national enrollment numbers in the program despite enrollment increases in at least 37 other states.

"Texas has the dubious honor of leading the nation in the number of vulnerable children we are giving up on," Vo said. "The LBB should take immediate action Monday to reverse course."

Vo said that CHIP cuts do not save taxpayers money because the health-care costs are simply shifted to local hospital districts that provide emergency medical care. Nor does lack of insurance coverage translate to a lack of childhood disease, Vo said.

"Nothing speaks to the failure of the current leadership in Austin more loudly or more tragically than the refusal to care for the most vulnerable among us," Vo said.

Vo said the LBB should restore full CHIP funding for 2005 for all eligible Texas children. The LBB is made up of Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, and other state leaders who have the authority to approve budget transfers and reallocations of tax dollars when the Legislature is not in session.