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The Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act of 2008US Senator Charles Grassley's (R-Iowa) new Improved Adoption Incentives and Guardianship Support Act of 2008 was introduced on May 20 with a wonderful press conference. Appearing with four adoptive families from Iowa, a young woman who had aged out from the Iowa foster care system spoke on behalf of guardianship support and how it could have provided permanency in her life. The Pew Kids Are Waiting Campaign was able to present Sen. Grassley with a large number of support letters from national organizations, HHS Excellence in Adoption Award winners, some state departments organizations, and local entities, too. Please take time to review the bill. Contact your US Senator now to urge him/her to sign on as a co-sponsor because it will mean great things for your state’s children and families. You can forward the “Dear Colleague” letter from Senator Grassley, along with your personal message to your Senator. Remember – either use email or fax, mail sent via USPS doesn’t get to Congress. Organizations Advocate for Support of a Federal Recovery PackageIn response to the harsh economic conditions of the state, over 160 organizations sent a letter to President Elect Barack Obama and the Ohio congressional delegation urging support of a federal recovery package that will help provide basic safety net services during this recession. “At a time when Ohioans are standing in line at midnight waiting for food centers to open at 9:00 AM, our homeless shelters are bursting with children and families, and children are losing child care slots, we must protect Ohio’s most vulnerable population now!” said Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, Co-Chairperson for Campaign to Protect Ohio’s Future. The letter asks policy makers to specifically support: • An increase in the Federal Matching Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for Medicaid for two years, up to $100 Billion dollars. • $100 Billion in a block grant to states to be used for education from early care through higher education to protect the investments in our state’s children, youth and young people and their ability to enter the workforce. • $3.2 Billion in additional TANF funds to the states, including elimination of the work requirement at a time when there are fewer jobs available. “With support from our leaders in Washington, Ohio can receive much-needed FMAP relief that will allow our state to cover more uninsured kids and also provide a boost to our state’s health care industry and the jobs that depend on it,” said Mary Wachtel, director of health policy for Voices for Ohio’s Children. Additionally the letter requests a temporary increase in food stamp benefits, increased federal funding for childcare, including an increase to the Child Development Block Grant and Head Start, and a strong SCHIP reauthorization program in the first hundred days of the new congress and administration. Greg Kapcar, chairperson of Have A Heart Ohio, stated that “Every organization signing this letter is serving the people who are being hurt by the cuts and proposed cuts; cuts that will continue if Ohio does not receive immediate assistance from the Federal Recovery Package.”
Thank you to First Focus for supporting our federal advocacy workFirst Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization that is committed to making children and their families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. Children’s health, education, family economics, child welfare, and child safety are the five core issue areas around which First Focus is working to promote bipartisan policy solutions. More information and resources from First Focus SCHIP Funding in the Year Ahead: Implications of the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension ActIt appears that many states across the country have substantial federal SCHIP funding available to them for pursuing plans to enroll more already eligible children and expanding eligibility to more uninsured children. States still will need to determine whether they have the state resources with which to cover more children, as well as to navigate the August 17th CMS directive that makes it more difficult to cover uninsured children in moderate-income families. However, in all but a handful of cases, states have significant federal resources to cover more uninsured children in the short-term. In the long-term, the history of SCHIP indicates that the federal government will continue to support the SCHIP program and provide states with the federal funding needed to allow it to continue. The Center for Children and Families released, "SCHIP Funding in the Year Ahead: Implications of the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act". This 8 page report analyzes the SCHIP financing provisions in the Extension Act, provides the SCHIP funding levels available for each state, and explores the implications for ongoing and future state efforts to cover children. SCHIP National Enrollment DataBased on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), more than 7.7 million people received coverage from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in FY2007. Approximately 7.1 million of these were children (under age 19), an increase of roughly 393,000 (6%), compared to FY2006. Adult SCHIP enrollees in FY2007 numbered approximately 587,000, a decrease of nearly 114,000 (16%), compared to FY2006. The CMS data permit state-level analyses of enrollees by income-eligibility level. The SCHIP statute defines a “low-income child” as those at or below 200% of poverty, but states can also cover children at higher income levels. This memorandum provides FY2007 state level estimates of child enrollees in SCHIP with family income up to 200% of poverty, those who are above 200% of poverty, and the number of adult SCHIP enrollees. CMS Sign-on LetterThe State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has helped uninsured children in Ohio and across the nation to obtain health care coverage for over a decade. The uninsured rate for Ohio children declined from 9.8% in 1998 to 5.4% in 2004, due in large part to Ohio’s successful Medicaid/SCHIP program Last summer Ohio’s bipartisan leaders passed a bill to expand coverage to thousands more of Ohio’s uninsured children. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has denied Ohio’s request to expand coverage to more children; Ohio is in the process of seeking a revised expansion through a State Plan Amendment (SPA). Despite strong leadership in Columbus, federal regulations are blocking Ohio’s progress toward covering more kids. Ohio advocates joined together to send a letter to communicate the damaging effects this bureaucratic red tape imposed by CMS will have on Ohio’s children. The CMS Sign on Letter was sent in March of 2008 to the entire Ohio Congressional Delegation. If you would like us to keep you informed about CMS regulations on Medicaid/SCHIP, please send your contact information to: info@vfc-oh.org. Together, we can raise our Voices with Ohio’s congressional leaders to eliminate these damaging regulations. View more information about the CMS Directive. |
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