Advocates Letter Urging Action to Protect CHIP | First Focus #CHIP

Advocates Letter Urging Action to Protect CHIP | First Focus:

Organizations in Every State Urge Leaders to Protect CHIP

More than 400 national, state, and local organizations united in urging Congress and the White House to protect CHIP funding, which will drop 70 percent next year if Congress fails to act. See who from your state signed the letter.

 Share on Twitter: Leaders in every state urge The @WhiteHouse & Congress to protect #CHIP funding. #InvestInkids http://www.firstfocus.net/library/letters-and-correspondence/advocates-letter-urging-action-to-protect-chip

Obama 2015 Budget Delivers for Children

The White House released President Barack Obama’s federal fiscal year 2015 budget proposal on Tuesday. The plan reiterates the Administration’s commitment to the Children’s Health Insurance Program, renews the president’s call for a federal-state pre-K partnership, and spotlights child poverty and foster care initiatives. Read the press statement.

 Share on Twitter: The @WhiteHouse delivers a budget that delivers for children. http://www.firstfocus.net/news/press_release/obama-budget-delivers-for-children-0#InvestInKids

New Brief: CHIP Overcame Politics to Deliver Wins for Children

A new brief by Gene Lewit, Consulting Professor of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University, looks back at how CHIP overcame initial political resistance in some states to deliver big gains in covering uninsured children. Lewit draws lessons from CHIP’s experience to identify factors for the Affordable Care Act’s success.

 Share on Twitter: Brief for @First_Focus shows how #CHIP overcame politics to deliver a win for uninsured children. http://www.firstfocus.net/library/reports/successfully-navigating-the-chip-state-federal-relationship-and-challenges-to-state- #InvestInkids

 

KIDS COUNT Report Urges Investments in Reading

A new analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that two-thirds of fourth-graders cannot read at grade level, and four-fifths of low-income fourth-graders. Read more about the Foundation’s recommendations to close the gap and help children read.

 

Blog Roundup

House Budget Committee Report Understates Effect of Safety Net for Children – Cara Baldari and Kevin Lindsey find what’s missing in the U.S. House Budget Committee report on federal anti-poverty initiatives.

Those Pesky Facts in the War on Poverty – Bruce Lesley takes a look at the same report’s omission of inconvenient facts about how federal poverty initiatives help seniors and children.

Medicaid Block Grants: A Bad Idea That Won’t Go Away – Bruce Lesley examines at the spin – the very different reality – of proposals to block-grant Medicaid.

The President’s 2015 Budget: A New Initiative to Improve Behavioral Health Outcomes for Foster Youth – Shadi Houshyar highlights a new initiative in President Obama’s budget proposal to help children in foster care get the mental health care they need and avoid overmedication.

EITC reform – Good for Children and their Families? – Ralph Forsht looks at Earned Income Tax Credit proposals from the White House and Capitol Hill.

Huffington Post – Invest in Kids: Restoring the American Dream – Our Bruce Lesley asks, if voters want federal government to prioritize children, why aren’t most politicians listening, and what can we do to support those who are?

SPARC – Perspectives from the Field (Partner Blog) – Podcast offers a one-on-one interview with veteran child welfare jurist The Honorable Ernestine Gray, who has served the people of New Orleans as a juvenile court judge since 1984.