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News release

MomsRising Celebrates Twelfth Birthday of Healthy Families Program

July 23, 2010
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

California Moms Deliver Birthday Cards with Messages of Thanks to State Legislators
Today marks the twelfth anniversary of Healthy Families Program which has allowed nearly 900,000 California children to see a doctor, get their teeth cleaned, and get their eyes checked. This program has given peace of mind to hundreds of thousands of California parents who are struggling financially. To celebrate the “birthday” of the program, California moms and kids delivered birthday cards to the California legislature. The cards contained messages of thanks collected by MomsRising from its members across the state. MomsRising is an online and on-the ground grassroots organization for moms and everyone who has a mom.
 
Among the messages are:
 
Healthy Families has been a life saver for us. I lost my job in September of 2008, and 3 months later my son was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Without Healthy Families we may have gone bankrupt, and still probably not have been able to get our son all the medicare care he needs.
 
Now thanks to the assistance and great care by Healthy Families our son's condition is almost under control, and he is feeling so much better. Thank you!
—Louise, Irvine, CA
 
Thanks to Healthy Families my kids can go and see the doctor. My daughter has athsma and she gets really sick, If she didn’t have Healthy Families, I really don't know what I would have done. Happy Birthday, Healthy Families, and thank you for taking care of our kids. Keep up doing a great job.
—Martha, Downey, CA
 
As a teacher in a low income neighborhood, I depend on Healthy Families to help my students come to school healthy and ready to learn. Thank you.
—Cec, Encino, CA
 
“Our children’s health is a primary concern for moms and dads,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “The Healthy Families Program has helped hundreds of thousands of children get the care they need and given their parents peace of mind – at least about their children’s health care. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of California children who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year increased from 1.1 to 1.5 million, as many parents lost jobs and health benefits. The Healthy Families Program has been an enormous boon to those families, but in the past year, premiums and co-payments for the program have increased dramatically. The federal Patient Protection and Affordability Act will likely prevent the Governor’s current budget proposal from raising premiums even higher, but we need to remain ever-vigilant to ensure that this kind of threat to California families’ economic security and their children’s health is gone for good.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.