California Watch
As 870,000 children are moved from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal beginning January 1, 2013, children's advocates express concern about children having access to care. "Our worry is that there seems to be an intention to proceed with these transitions without that certainty that the doctors will be there to meet all these kids," said Kathleen Hamilton, director of governmental affairs with the Children's Partnership.
Download the full article. (PDF)
Education Week
Wendy Lazarus describes the need for schools and organizations to prioritize bridging the gap between school and home in order "to have parents become both digitally literate and more engaged in their children's education," in this article about schools using social networking to involve parents.
Download here (PDF).
California Healthline, Capitol Desk
Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President, responds to last week's action in California: 415,000 notices were sent to inform Healthy Families participants they will need to switch to Medi-Cal managed care plans on January 1.
"Stakeholders are not against the transition, but are concerned about the speed at which changes take place. When so many providers and consumers are forming opinions about Medi-Cal managed care and about health care reform in general, it's important this transition does not cause undue concern." Ms. Lazarus continues, "With a little more due diligence, it can be done better. If it's premature at the start of it, that could plant questions in the minds of the public to implement health reform. It just needs a little more time to make it right."
Download the full article.
The Children's Partnership developed a new factsheet on the CHDP Gateway, with recommendations on incorporating it as part of California’s implementation of the ACA and further strengthened to serve as an important pathway for meeting the health and enrollment goals of health care reform while maintaining its ability for children to access needed services.
MomsRising.org
The Presidential Debates missed focusing on the job held by 155 million Americans: parenting. Way before a worker’s first paycheck, parents are the front line to achieve the much-touted goal of developing a workforce with the skills and savvy to keep America competitive and leading in the global economy. How well parents are supported in raising their children will have more impact on the strength of our future workforce than most “job-related” decisions the next President will make.
Wendy Lazarus and Laurie Lipper pose five questions that the candidates should have answered—and still can.
According to a new report by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families, the rate of uninsured children in California declined 1.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, which ranks the state 12th in the nation for the decline in the child uninsured rate.
“This reduction in uninsured children is fantastic news for our state’s children and families, said Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children’s Partnership. “With the implementation of health care reform just around the corner and our state’s commitment to successfully transition nearly 900,000 children from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal, it is finally within our reach to ensure that every child in California receives high quality health coverage.”
Read more about the effort to insure all of California's children in the joint press release here.
CaliforniaHealthline
As California forges ahead to resolve several key questions about how insurers will provide pediatric dental and vision benefits under the federal Affordable Care Act, a new study examines dental benefits in California's implementation of ACA.
"The study raises good questions," said Jenny Kattlove, who coordinates dental access programs for The Children's Partnership. "We want to make sure that children of all ages have access to dental coverage. We want to make sure families understand that children are eligible for pediatric dental benefits and that enrollment in both health and dental coverage will be coordinated."
Download the full article here. (PDF)
The California children’s health coverage coalition applauded Governor Jerry Brown for signing several pieces of key legislation that move health care reform forward in California but also expressed disappointment that other key bills affecting children’s health were vetoed.
“We are deeply concerned that the governor has put the brakes on these two critical elements of the Affordable Care Act. Putting an end to discrimination against those with pre-existing health conditions is a hallmark of health reform, as is protecting the children who are most in need of affordable health insurance. This decision by the governor is not acceptable for California’s children and needs to be remedied,” said Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children’s Partnership in a joint press release .
Huffington Post
As gaming becomes more social, it is expanding into parts of society once seen as untouched by video games. The largest of these groups is women, who make up 55 percent of social gamers on average. Women are also more likely than men to make charitable contributions, care about youth-related causes, and purchase virtual goods in social games.
The kinds of in-game donations and virtual goods that helped fund disaster relief in Haiti and Japan are a natural next step for helping our own children. The potential is enormous for both gaming companies and children. In 2011, the virtual goods industry saw $2.3 billion in US sales. In a market that big, there is certainly room for many causes. The Children's Partnership is working to make sure that child poverty is one of them.
Download the full article.
The Washington Post
An article highlighting the VirtuallyGood4Kids (VG4K) inititative encouraging the gaming "industry to provide parents and their kids with more opportunities to direct the money they spend on virtual purchases toward fundraising causes."
Learn more about VirtuallyGood4Kids.
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