Remember Kids in Health Care Reform

Desperately needed federal health care reform is happening now. Send a message to your U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell and ask her to support comprehensive health care reform this year - and remember kids' needs in any health care reform proposal. Take action now.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Pass health care reform and remember kids

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Thank you for working to pass health care reform. The need in our state is urgent and growing.

As you consider health care reform, please remember the kids in Washington State. Thanks in part to your leadership on SCHIP, our state has achieved great progress toward our state's goal of covering every child by 2010 through the Apple Health for Kids program.

The success of Apple Health depends on a continued federal partnership through the SCHIP and Medicaid programs.

As you consider health care reform please work to ensure that these principles are incorporated:

- System reform should ensure that every child and pregnant woman has affordable, comprehensive health care coverage, and no child should lose coverage or benefits because of health care reform.

- System reform should provide mandatory funding for evidence-based home visiting programs for at-risk mothers and their young children

- System reform should include a public Option to increase choice and access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance.

- System reform should be inclusive of uninsured populations by eliminating the five year waiting limit for newly documented immigrants, avoiding additional verification requirements for employer coverage, and by covering everyone in a mixed-status family under a health care plan.

Thank you for being a strong voice for children's needs in the past, and thank you for working to ensure that coverage for children is protected and enhanced through any federal health care reform.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
June 12, 2009

Background Information

Health care reform is desperately needed in Washington State. 640,000 adults in Washington are without insurance, and the number is soaring as more people lose their jobs, and their coverage. But kids in Washington are covered. Years of persistent advocacy have won victories that created the Cover All Kids law, and the Apple Health for Kids program.

As our leaders in Washington, D.C work toward health coverage, we need them to remember kids. The reform of our nation's health care system should protect and enhance the programs that are working for kids. The Children's Alliance has affirmed broad principles for any health care reform effort, including:

No child should lose coverage or benefits, particularly those currently eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, because of health care reform.
Every child and pregnant woman must have affordable health care coverage.
Every child must have access to a comprehensive and age-appropriate benefits package that supports his/her developmental needs, which includes access to preventive, oral and mental health services.
Coverage must be accessible, automatic, continuous and portable.
Health information technologies must support child health and improve outcomes.
System reform must improve child health measures and accountability.
System improvements must support high-quality clinical and population-based services for optimal maternal and child well-being.
System reform must support prevention and promotion services for children as an efficient strategy for avoiding costly lifelong health and developmental consequences.
System reform must support a strong public health infrastructure and recognize the essential role of safety net providers, including community health centers and school-based health clinics, as critical access points to care for millions of our nation’s children and their families.
System reform must improve coordination of child services across local, state and federal levels and across public-private systems.
System reform must provide substantial funding for evidence-based home visiting programs for at-risk mothers and their young children.
Systems reform must cover as many uninsured as possible by eliminating the five year waiting limit for lawfully present immigrants, avoiding additional verification/documentation requirements on an individual seeking health care through employment, and by covering all in the family if one person in a household is eligible for benefits offered by a health care plan.
System reform must include a Public Option to expand access to affordable health insurance; it is vital to the success of health care reform that a public option to private insurance is established.
System reform must include additional revenues and cannot just rely on cost containment strategies within the health care system.

Read more about health care issues at the Children's Alliance blog. No Kidding!