Full disclosure: I'm not a great baker. My kids think a Betty Crocker cake is fully homemade. However, it seems to me that healthcare reform is kind of like baking a cake. If you don't have the right ingredients, it will fall as flat as a pancake.

Last week Senator Baucus released his proposal for health reform that is an attempt at a compromise measure which he hopes will be the blueprint for reform moving forward. Unfortunately, it looks like it needs our help to make it rise.

Tell Congress that the Baucus health reform proposal that they are considering this week is missing some of the necessary ingredients to get health reform right for kids and families! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27304

What are the missing ingredients in the Baucus proposal? Affordable coverage, comprehensive benefits, employer responsibility to help pay for health coverage, a strong public option, better reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers; and a guarantee that health reform will also benefit kids, not set back the great advances in children's health coverage made by the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

That's right. The Senate Finance Committee is meeting right now to consider the Baucus proposal for health reform. Congress needs to hear from each and every one of us (forward this email far & wide) that any health reform proposal must have the following key ingredients in order to work for kids and families:

* Ending unfair insurance practices such as rejecting applicants based on pre-existing conditions and setting insurance rates based on gender, health status, or age

* A strong public health insurance plan option that ensures choices for consumers, lowers costs, and provides real competition for insurance companies

* Head to toe coverage for ALL children that is affordable and easy to use

* Help for families with low and moderate incomes to cover the costs of health coverage and reasonable limits on out-of-pocket expenses

Health reform without these components will be a flop! Or as famous chef Julia Child said, "A cookbook is only as good as its worst recipe." Let's make sure that the Baucus proposal has a successful recipe for our nation's health reform!

Send a letter to Congress now! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27304

And please forward this message on to your friends and family. This is a critical moment for our nation's future! Let's make sure all our families' voices are heard.

Thanks for your work on behalf of all families!

--Donna, Julia, Ashley, Dionna, Anita, and Kristin

P.S. Check out these great blogs from our healthcare blog carnival last week! http://www.momsrising.org/blog/healthcare-blog-carnival/

P.P.S. Thanks to the National Women's Law Center, Georgetown's Center for Children and Families, National Council of La Raza, First Focus, Children's Defense Fund, Voices for America's Children, and Health Care for America Now for their help with this message!