Can Children Get Congress To Protect Their Health?

In 1931, Grace Abbott, the Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, gave a speech about her long and frustrating workdays in our nation's capital trying to advocate for children's needs. She said she felt all alone standing with her baby carriage on the sidewalk watching a great traffic jam moving toward the Capitol where Congress sits.

She saw all kinds of vehicles including the tanks and trucks the Army put into the street; "the handsome limousines in which the Department of Commerce rides...the barouches in which the Department of State rides with such dignity...[and] the noisy patrols in which the Department of Justice officials sometimes appear." And so she stood on the sidewalk watching, "because the responsibility is mine and I must, I take a very firm hold on the handles of the baby carriage and I wheel it into the traffic."

And so must we parents and grandparents and child care providers and educators grab the handles of our baby strollers and the hand of our children and walk into the traffic headed for Congress. We must make them hear and respond to the urgent, but still too ignored, needs of our 8.1 million uninsured children. We must break through the political den of powerful special interests like the insurance and drug companies with their fleet of well paid lobbyists.

On Wednesday, November 4th, the Children's Defense Fund is organizing a Champions for Children's Health Stroller Brigade in the nation's Capitol to send an urgent and clear message to our political leaders that real health reform for children must be enacted this year. Children's unmet health needs have been lost in the debate's "big" issues. Unless we act now, millions of children could be worse, rather than better off, as a result of pending health reform legislation.

D.C.'s stroller brigade will extend to Congressional districts across the country on November 6th through 8th where concerned parents, grandparents, faith, and community leaders will tell members of Congress back home to stand up and invest in an affordable, accessible, and comprehensive child health system. So far, stroller brigades are being planned for Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, and Texas.

It is morally and economically indefensible for millions of American children to be denied critically needed health reform in the richest nation on earth claiming it lacks the money to protect its children.

We need to end the bureaucratic barriers that keep two out of three of the more than eight million uninsured children who are already eligible for either CHIP or Medicaid from actually getting the care they need. A simple, seamless enrollment process like older Americans have for Medicare would ensure our children are cared for and covered. We need to guarantee every child access to the full range of preventive and other health care services they need and that we now provide to all children in Medicaid but not to all children in CHIP or in the proposed Exchange. A child covered by CHIP has the same value as a child covered by Medicaid and all deserve comprehensive care regardless of the program they are in. And we need to provide an affordable national health safety net for children whose families make up to 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($66,000 for a family of four) and eliminate the unjust lottery of geography. Whether a child's family can afford coverage should not depend on where they live. New York covers children up to 400 percent; North Dakota only to 160 percent; and Massachusetts and twenty-one other states, plus the District of Columbia are already at 300 percent. A child in North Dakota is no less valuable than a child in New York or Massachusetts.

The lives and health of millions of children depend on health reform this year. They will not get what they need unless you speak up and demand it. Children have no other voice but yours. Lift it high and loud. Grab your strollers, your scooter, or your walking shoes, and join our children's brigades on November 4th in Washington, D.C. and in other states across the country November 6-8th. In America, every child should have the health care they need - now. They have only one childhood. Together we can make it happen. To learn how to join a stroller brigade, create your own, or take action in other ways with simple steps, visit www.childrensdefense.org/strollerbrigade.

 

 

Follow Marian Wright Edelman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChildDefender

Comments

[Conk]

What MUST happen before any kind of reform on health care is to stop POISONING the children and everyone else. Stop it already with sugary drinks, sodas, junk snacks, candy, MSG, Aspartame, refined flour, simple carbs, dyes, preservatives, rancid vegetable oils (racid the second you buy it, Yes!) and on and on.

Of course people are fat, sick, and dying. They are being poisoned by the giant food companies, with Congress, FDA, and USDA approval. Of course the allow it. Their bigger brother, Big Pharma, needs sick people to maintain their trillion dollar scam.

[invisiblechildren]

Working with children in child protection services for many years has shown me how important mental health services are to children that have been traumatized. 3 million children a year are reported to child protection services in our nation. Extended exposure to violence and deprivation is the World Health Organization's definition of torture. It is also the definition of the law that allows a child to be removed from the home of an abusive parent in the U.S. I have watched children as young as four try to kill themselves. A judge I work with has mailed me the psychotropic medications of children in her courtroom (very young children) very few of them receiving adequate mental health therapy. 50 to 75% of the youth in the juvenile justice system have diagnosable mental illness & half of them have multiple and severe diagnosis. The same data for children in child protection systems is unavailable in the U.S. (it really should be) www.invisiblechildren.org

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-close/mental-illness-the-stigma_b_328591.html

[PrairieView]

What in the world is the $1 trillion dollars for healthcare reform to be spent on? If everyone will be required to buy insurance, and reforms will save billions then I do not understand why we need to raise taxes by a $1 trillion to pay for "it".

[PetrBuben]

Children's poverty, homelessnes, lack of medical care is serious violation of human rights, while at the same time government spends $1 trillion a year on military budget.

Poverty, homelessnes and lack of medical care for anybody in developed world is a violation of human rights.

The whole developed world had universal national public-private healthcare system.

[2morrowknight - Huffpost Blogger]

"Children's poverty, homelessnes, lack of medical care is serious violation of human rights, while at the same time government spends $1 trillion a year on military budget."

Great point.

[textynn]

It's not just the children's physical health that needs to be protected by health care. The health of their parents affects their lives enormously. I am a single mother and I was working unknowingly in a Superfund site and became very ill. I worked on heavy meds for about two years and then basically collapsed and couldn't work. I lost my health care when I couldn't work. I spent about 18 months to 2 years in what I thought was a death bed with no health care and no nurse or help etc. I couldn't change my clothes for almost the whole time because of extreme pain. I know, gross right. That's what being deathly ill is like. My house was a complete mess and older kids started hanging out in the house all hours. I was too sick to stop it or even know about it most of the time. My kids started completely failing school and rarely went. I begged them to go but they wouldn't . I was so ill I had no control what so ever.

Should someone have done something. Sure they should have. But no one did. My parents are elderly. My health care provider knew how sick I was when I stopped having access but the fact that someone practically dead was now without treatment meant nothing whatsoever to them. This country needs to get a clue. We need health care for all.

[Beth Isbell]

Here's a great cute & clever video ad by children for children on the need to pass health reform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qENVmDulfNQ

It's only 30 seconds ... so please watch it & share the link!

[usna73]

You may not believe it, but the bar is set in Ohio that a family who is collecting the maximum unemployment benefits for both husband and wife would not be able to qualify for SCHIP for their children, assuming a family of four.

If you do the math, the ENTIRE UI benefit for one of the spouses would need to be used for health insurance for the family, assuming that the Federal Cobra subsidy will expire.

I cannot comprehend how punishing working families who did the right thing, with both husband and wife who were in there workforce should have to endure such fear and indignity.

You get health care, the bank gets the house. What a country?

[PrairieView]

I am confused. I thought Obama and the Democrats were bringing healthcare for everyone, not just adults. What am I missing?

[Tuckerndfw]

They are doing no such thing.

They are attempting to foist "you MUST buy insurance from our corporate sponsors" off as "health care reform."

If you do not qualify for Medicaid (abject poverty) or cannot pay for insurance, you will not have insurance.

Poor, working class people who are not living in abject poverty will have no insurance, same as they don't have it now. Those who are uninsured now will still be uninsured if Congress enacts what Dems are promoting.

[Flavor]

That is not true, the plan he has is for everyone to be insured, and the reason for this plan is because the poor were not insured. Please stop with the lies.

[mergina]

The very fact that this fiasco has taken up most of 2009, and they are no closer today than they were 10 months ago to passing a REAL REFORM BILL that works for the american people and NOT the corporate masters that Washington serves, is PROOF that the health and lives of every single American hang in the balance, the balance of greed fueled Washington politics, where the almighty dollar is more important than human life. EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of Congress, ALL OF THEM, who vote to play with OUR HEALTH AND OUR LIVES, will be in the unemployment heap when the next rounds of elections take place. Miserable cesspool of corruption.

[PrairieView]

Too bad Obama did not include patients in the discussion of healthcare reforms. Only the industry is allowed to participate in the reform process. Not a good way to make a corrupt system better.

[caveman1313]

wow, nice buzz words. reform that works for america? yes we can!

obama went before congress and said that reform will cover 94% of the population, leaving 6% covered. 6% is about 20 million people!

we currently have about 87% covered now, though that number drops year after year.

1 trillion dollars to go from 87% to 94%.

[smilinggreenmom]

It is true that many children do not have health insurance and how frustrating this can be for parents. Not only do we need to try to find a job - but a job with health insurance too! Neither my husband nor myself work for an employer who offers this benefit and it has been so challenging to find a carrier who is not only feasible but one who will actually cover stuff and not put every known clause and preexisting condition before every need gets met! That said, we are firm believers in natural living and I recently read an article that said how these days, the best health insurance we could buy it prevention! Our family is trying to things this way for sure. We are trying to get extra sleep, rest, drink lots of water, eat whole foods and take our daily Vidazorb chewable probiotic for all their amazing benefits! Thanks for sharing this struggle though - it can be so frustrating!

[EuroMom]

You find it frustrating. I would find it absolutely terrifying. Like you, I rely on a healthy lifestyle, nutritious food, plenty of exercise, and home remedies for every ailment. But sometimes all the chicken soup, herbal infusions and TLC in the world are simply not enough. What do you do then if you don't have insurance??? No parent should ever have to face that situation with a sick child.

[Tuckerndfw]

Parents who cannot provide health care for their children should lose custody of their children.

If taxpayers are going to adopt children, we need to place them in institutions so their needs can be taken care of at the lowest cost & most efficient form of delivery.

We can bill their parents for those services to help defray the costs to taxpayers.

You know, like we do with child support.

[caveman1313]

you joke but what you say would make sense to government bureaucrats looking to maximize the benefit of a government run healthcare system.

[caveman1313]

opps, it is late, i really butchered that. "means to an end"

[usna73]

You must have loved slavery. Who do you think you are? I know you love the alternative of putting more young people in jail,...... then private industry can take care of the problem.

I suggest that you move to China. You will love it there.

[rbryanh]

"Can Children Get Congress To Protect Their Health?"

Congress will protect children's health just as soon as children's campaign contributions exceed those of health insurance companies. In short, no.

Ms. Edelman, you're clearly an intelligent, caring person. Why are you wasting ammunition shooting at the puppets? Congress does what it's paid to do; the problem is refusing to acknowledge who employs it.

America's representative democracy failed quite awhile ago. You pundits are like dogs who bark at the finger rather than what's being pointed at.

[Whatathought]

Caveman, I think that quite a few parents are looking for jobs that will have medical insurance for their
families. My father had to give up work he loved for a different job just so he could get health insurance and I always felt bad about that because I was the one who was ill.

[EuroMom]

Whatathought: Your father did what any caring parent would do in that situation. Luckily, he did manage to find another job. No doubt, as an adult, you know that your childhood feelings of guilt are unfounded. But – why on earth should any parent have to face such a choice in any wealthy industrialised country? Why is America the only “first world” country to deny its citizens a basic right that most other countries take for granted?

[caveman1313]

praise to your father. if only more people were responsible like him.

i do similar for my children. it was a decision i made when my wife and when we decided to have children. i gave up my "sports" (not really a sports car but sporty to me) car for a minivan. i selected a line of work that has good benefits (for now). sure, i would love to do something else but something else doesn't pay as well. work is an ends to a means, not a means unto itself.

if work was that important to me i would have decided not to have any kids. perhaps i will change careers when my kids are grown and out of the house.

[caveman1313]

why aren't parent's watching out for the children's health?

[PlaceboStudman]

They're too busy indulging their own immediate gratification needs with Botox and Rogaine and collagen injections and lipo, because they're miserable and trying to make themself look good instead of trying to feel good, because it's easier and faster, so they can spend all their time climbing the corporate ladders

[freedomthrutruth]

If we can't take care of ourselves, then how are we going to take care of our children as many of us have been laid off and foreclosed on. Instead of working, many Americans ought to be in the streets protesting, as Ms Edelman suggests.