Children’s Health Program Helps Families Through Tough Times

In the past year, while private insurance has become less available and more expensive and families faced the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression, the renewed CHIP program and Medicaid have offered a vital lifeline to America’s children. Thanks to the strong resolve of national and state leaders, many of our children have been sheltered from this economic storm.

Hopeful Signs Greet Mom Returning from Maternity Leave

As we approach the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization, think of all those babies born in the last year who were given a better chance at living a healthy life due to this important legislation. I applaud Governor Culver and other state lawmakers who had the courage and leadership to use CHIP and Medicaid funding to increase their investments in families struggling to weather the current economic storm.

This Month’s Flavor for Toxic Jewelry: It’s Cadmi-yummy!

So it turns out that cadmium (atomic number forty-eight, for those of you scoring at home) is more than a long-forgotten square on the periodic table. It’s also a toxic heavy metal found in our children’s jewelry.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press (AP) revealed that it recently found high levels of cadmium [...]

If at first you don’t succeed…

If my kids wanted to quit something after their first setback, I’d say, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” So what’s with Congress? One unexpected election result in Massachusetts, a state that already has universal healthcare, is all it takes for some in Congress to throw up their hands and say we [...]

Now Is No Time to Abandon Hope – or Our Efforts – for Health Reform That Works for Women…

By Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center
There is a lot of Wednesday morning quarterbacking about the reasons for, and impact of, yesterday’s election in Massachusetts.
As it relates to health reform, I think that more than a few people are getting it wrong. Regarding those who say that the election was a rebuke of [...]

Take a sled to the polls, Massachusetts!

Braving the snow to vote in Massachusetts? Tell us about it!

Health Reform Will End Gender Rating, Kind of, Sort of, Maybe…

by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center
As we’ve discussed here many times before, gender rating is the harmful and discriminatory insurance practice of charging individuals and employers different premiums based on gender.
For individuals buying coverage directly from insurance companies on the individual market, we found that women were often charged higher premiums than [...]

Next Step on the Road to Reform: Negotiating Differences Between the House & Senate Bills

by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center

We are closer to adopting health reform than ever before in history. Now that the Senate passed their health reform legislation, the next step on the road to reform is for Senate and House leaders to work out differences between their two bills, and then each chamber [...]

Don’t Gamble With Children’s Health

For the first time in American history, adults do not believe that our nation’s children will have the opportunities they had to live a happy, healthy, and prosperous life. And over the past five years, the response from our nation’s leaders has been to decrease the share of our national investment in children by 12%. When [...]

From your hips to your lips!

This morning, I was looking glumly down at the extra 5 pounds on my scale thinking… Diet? Exercise? And then it came to me. No! This January, America’s families need to throw our weight around and that extra 5 pounds is going to come in handy!
Right now, each Congressional Representative is compiling a list of [...]