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**UPDATE!!** Thanks to everyone who has contributed comments and questions to this discussion, here as well as through Facebook and Twitter.  The five questions have been chosen, and the Senator will tape her answers early next week.  (With a short break in voting in DC, Senator Murray has flown back to her home state of Washington to meet with constituents.)  We will post the video on this blog and look forward to discussing her answers with you.

1.  CHIP has been a great success to help kids in need get healthcare.  While the Senate Finance Committee has agreed in principle to continue CHIP, it actually allows funding for the program to end in 2013. What are your thoughts on how we can be sure that health reform legislation includes funding for this important program as long as kids need it, or at least for the first few years of transition to the new world of health reform?

2.  What ideas do you have for making sure that coverage for kids in the insurance exchange is affordable and provides kids with benefits tailored to their unique developmental needs?

3.  Is it going to be 4 or more years before health reform will be fully up and running?  What ideas do you have about the best way to make sure that states continue moving forward in covering children in need over the next several years before health reform is in place?

4.  How will health reform help the many mothers who are working part-time or as contract or temporary workers and who don't have avenues for health coverage through their employers?  And what safety net will health reform provide working mothers who lose their jobs in this bad economy?

5.  How can you make sure that healthcare is affordable for low and moderate income families and that the subsidies for families are adequate?

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Exciting news! Senator Murray of WA is taking *your* questions on health reform!  MomsRising members can ask her our questions about how health reform will particularly impact women, children and families.  Now is the time to make your voice heard directly to a US Senator!  Post your questions here BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9 at 2 PM PST/ 5 PM EST; she will be selecting and answering some member questions via video that we'll share on this blog.

Sen Patty Murray
Not sure what to ask?  Here are some questions that might get you started.
1.  The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has been very successful, but I'm not sure how funding for it will continue to work.  How much security we will see for CHIP in the bill?
2. Women are major consumers of plans on the individual market (not employer-based) for health care coverage.  CA just passed a law preventing gender discrimination in individual health insurance plans.  Does the health reform bill include similar protections for women?
3. Health reform won't happen overnight, even if the bill is passed right away.  What measures are in place to ensure that while the transitions happen, families don't fall through the cracks-- without current health insurance and before the Exchanges are set up?


Never fear, your questions don't have to be long or based in expert knowledge!  We want your questions, so come as you are and post in the comments below!


The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.

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