The graph above shows the growth of health and human services spending in the last eight years. Health and human services spending accounts for approximately one-third of the entire state budget, roughly a quarter of all state general revenue spending, and more than 60% of all federal funds that come to the state. As a proportion of the state budget, health and human services declined in the 2008-09 budget from the previous biennium due to changes in school financing that led the state to increase education funding, and thus the share of funding going to education. However, health and human services funding from state general revenue sources increased almost 19% ($3.4 billion) from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

At more than $40 billion over the biennium, Medicaid is the largest single item in the health and human services budget and the second largest item in the entire state budget. Between Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the state covers the health care costs for approximately 3.4 million Texans who are children, pregnant women, aged, blind, or disabled.

The health and human services budget also includes funding for the welfare program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that provides cash assistance to certain Texans; Child Protective Services, which investigates child abuse, operates the state’s foster care system, and pays adoption subsidies. This area of the budget also funds the state’s community health efforts, public health and immunizations programs, regulation and enforcement of child care facilities, nutrition services, family planning, and a variety of other activities.

A complete listing of all agencies funded in Article I is available by downloading the state budget or the Legislative Budget Board’s Fiscal Size-Up.