Bruce Lesley
Blog Post List
December 10, 2020
The U.S. Supreme Court — now with a full slate of justices — has just heard a case to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that the Trump administration supports. In addition to robbing 23 million Americans of health care coverage, eliminating the ACA would threaten a critical and long-term consequence that is largely overlooked: the demise of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But Congress — even in its “lame duck” session — has a grand opportunity to prevent this. CHIP provides 10 million children a year with child-specific health care such as pediatricians and children’s...
MomsRising
Education Fund
June 6, 2018
In his May 22 Op-Ed in the Washington Post entitled “Democrats’ complaints about CHIP funding are hypocrisy in its purest form,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney attempts to defend his proposal to rescind or raid $7 billion out of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by launching a partisan attack on those concerned about protecting the health of children. However, Members of Congress, regardless of their political party, are right to oppose the Trump Administration’s rescission proposal, as it disproportionately targets children for cuts and...
MomsRising
Together
May 12, 2014
How about a Mother’s Day gift of one less thing to worry about? The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid are there for families still without health insurance, and there’s no enrollment date to worry about. Children and teens up to age 18 – expecting mothers and parents too! – may be eligible for this free or low-cost care. So Mom can rest easy on her special day knowing the kids are getting regular checkups, lifesaving immunizations, doctor and dentists visits, emergency care, and more. A Pennsylvania mother whose three sons are enrolled in CHIP thanks the coverage for the...
MomsRising
Together
May 7, 2013
A few weeks ago, Melissa Harris-Perry appeared in a "Lean Forward" promotional ad for MSNBC and said: We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we've always had kind of a private notion of children: Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it's everybody's responsibility, and not just the...
MomsRising
Together
October 4, 2012
When it comes to public policy issues of importance to our nation’s children, female policymakers and Moms – not surprisingly – are typically more supportive and active on children’s issues than men, even as we all continue to work hard to enlighten more men so that children’s needs will become a “national priority” that leaders of both genders and both political parties will more readily champion. As such, the First Focus Campaign for Children released its Champions for Children awards for the 112th Congress this week to highlight those Members of Congress that vote, sponsor legislation, and...
MomsRising
Together
June 13, 2012
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court ruling, a statute that embodies our belief as Americans that all children should have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. The ruling established that every child, regardless of their immigration status, is entitled to a public K-12 education. Specifically, the ruling deemed it unconstitutional to discriminate against children “on the basis of a legal characteristic over which children have little control”—namely their immigration status—and also observed that restrictive education policies would ultimately...
MomsRising
Together
April 2, 2010
With the entire nation buzzing over President Obama's historic health care victory, many Americans are trying to understand how this new law will affect their everyday lives. For some of our nation's most vulnerable children with special health care needs, President Obama has announced that, beginning this September, health insurance plans will no longer be allowed to deny coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. Done, right? Well, not so fast. Immediately, some in the health insurance industry argued they might seek to avoid or ignore the provision. Health and Human Services (HHS...
MomsRising
Together
January 13, 2010
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 Americans no longer believe in the American Dream, it's time to return to basics. That means protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our children. Last year began with great promise for our nation's children. President Obama was elected on a campaign pledge to...
MomsRising
Together
November 20, 2009
Twenty years ago today, leading nations of the world put aside conflicting interests and cultural differences to unite behind a common purpose -- the acknowledgment of the fundamental rights of the world's most important and most vulnerable population, our children. Indeed, the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC, is the most widely recognized of any international agreement in existence today. The CRC sets forth basic human standards that ratifying nations agree to pursue on behalf of children. These are a child's right to survival, the right to develop to the...
MomsRising
Together