Universal coverage for pregnant women and children = 9 days of DOD spending

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/200...ck_of_care.php
But even if SCHIP is fully funded, millions of children will still be excluded from health care coverage.
Up until now, Medicaid and the SCHIP program have made great strides in providing children with health insurance. But even with their successes, one out of every nine of our children is still without health insurance and millions more are underinsured. As Congress considers reauthorization of SCHIP this year, we have a unique opportunity to take the next logical, achievable and moral step that would guarantee comprehensive health and mental health care to all children and pregnant women. We at the Children's Defense Fund propose a plan whereby children’s health coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP would be consolidated into a single program. This will include a guaranteed, comprehensive benefits package nationwide for children whose family incomes are at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level (topping at about $62,000 a year for a family of four).
Under the proposal, children currently enrolled in Medicaid, SCHIP and means-tested federal programs like school lunch and food stamps would be enrolled automatically, with an opportunity for parents to opt out. Uninsured children could also be automatically enrolled when they are born, enter school or get a Social Security card, again with the opportunity to opt out.
...
Another element of the proposal would substantially increase reimbursements to health care providers so children can actually get health services when they need them. And there would be no additional cost to states for child coverage expansion or enhanced benefits.

Health coverage can be provided to every child in America in 2007. The funding necessary to expand coverage to all children and pregnant women would be the equivalent to just nine days of Defense Department spending in 2007, and three months of the tax cuts to the richest one percent of Americans this year.

Which is of the greater moral value? 300,000 plus in tax cuts for Dick Cheney and his family or health care for poor children in your community?

...After searching for an evidence-based model to reduce child abuse and neglect, the state of Oklahoma decided to implement the Nurse-Family Partnership Model utilizing the county health department system. Children First, Oklahoma's NFP, was created by state statue in 1996 and funded with state appropriations. In February1997, four pilot sites with 19 nurses were based in Garfield, Garvin, Muskogee and Tulsa Counties. By October 1998, services were available in all 77 counties. Currently the county health department staff consists of 170 public health nurses providing home visits, and 22 nurse supervisors. Training, quality assurance through site visits and audits, as well as general consultation is provided to the Children First nurses by Children First Program Staff out of the Oklahoma State Department of Health's central office....

http://www.nursefamilypartnership.or...=139&navID=119

...May, 2005 ■ Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology publishes findings by the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma, that NFP/Children First mothers have healthier babies...

http://www.nursefamilypartnership.or...arabin2005.pdf

Spacenurse, I'm so glad you replied! I feel exactly the same way! Everyone deserves to be safe and warm, with decent healthcare and enough food to eat.

Everyone. Even drug addicts.

Hey let's take it easy on the liberals, I am about as right wing as you can get and believe 100% that universal coverage is the best option for all americans. President bush is even coming around a little ..also alittle late but coming around none the less.

Uberman are you a nurse?