Texicare, the health affiliate of Texas Mutual, has signed a network agreement with CHRISTUS Health that adds 96 providers and 29 clinic locations across Bexar and Comal counties to its San Antonio offering, effective August 15. The addition covers primary care, emergency services, cardiology, orthopedics, neuroscience, pediatrics, and women's health.
Texicare entered San Antonio in October 2025, its eighth Texas market. The plan now operates in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Houston, El Paso, San Angelo, and San Antonio. Texas Mutual has approved $300 million in total funding for Texicare to support the rollout.
The strategic context behind Texicare is the part that makes this more than a network expansion announcement. Texas Mutual holds approximately 39.4% of the Texas workers' compensation market, according to 2024 data from the Texas Department of Insurance - the largest share of any carrier in the state.
Texicare was created to extend that reach into health coverage. The Texas Legislature directed Texas Mutual to investigate health plan options for small businesses in 2021, and the board approved Texicare's creation the following year. The plan targets the same small business population Texas Mutual already covers for workers' comp.
For brokers, that existing relationship is Texicare's most significant competitive asset. A small business owner who already trusts Texas Mutual for workers' comp is a warmer prospect for a health plan conversation than a cold outreach. The challenge is completing that connection on the health side, where established carriers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, and Humana have decades of brand presence and deep network contracting.
Texicare CEO Meredith Duncan told Becker's Payer Issues in January that provider offices are not always familiar with the insurance card, even among providers who are receptive to the plan. That is the practical friction the CHRISTUS agreement is designed to reduce. CHRISTUS is a well-recognised San Antonio health system. Adding a known name to Texicare's network at a moment when provider familiarity is still developing gives members a more confident referral conversation at the point of care.
Duncan said: "In the year since we launched here, we have seen firsthand how much San Antonio business owners want to take care of their people. CHRISTUS is a trusted name in the city, and they deliver the kind of integrated, accessible care our members are looking for."
Texas carries the highest uninsured rate in the country at approximately 16%, based on US Census data. In Bexar County specifically, more than 316,000 residents - around 16% of the county population - were uninsured in 2023, per Census data analysed by Texas 2036.
The expiration of enhanced ACA premium tax credits at the end of 2025 pushed average marketplace premiums to $1,904 in 2026, compared with $888 the prior year based on KFF data.
Small business owners who had relied on subsidized individual marketplace coverage are among those now looking for alternative arrangements - precisely the population Texicare is designed to serve.
A 2024 survey by Texas 2036 found 85% of Texas employers say healthcare costs are rising at an unsustainable rate.
The plan operates three structures. TotalCare plans include four $0 visits across primary care, specialists, urgent care, physical therapy, and mental health. SimplicityCare plans feature set copays and no deductibles. SavingsCare plans pair lower monthly premiums with a Health Savings Account option. Members can access CHRISTUS providers through any of the three plan types.
For brokers placing small group health in San Antonio or the broader South Texas market, Texicare now has a more complete provider network than it did six months ago - and it enters the 2026-2027 plan year with a cost environment that is pushing employers to look beyond the established carriers they have defaulted to for years. Whether Texicare's workers' comp relationship converts into meaningful health plan market share will depend on how effectively brokers can make that connection for clients who already know Texas Mutual's name but may not yet know Texicare's.
