Reports

Children.....An Agenda of Urgency

33% of black children live in poverty..... 35% of black children live with two married parents compared to 83% of Asian children...... 77% of white children, and 65% of Hispanic children..... A Black baby is born uninsured every five minutes. One out of every seven babies born uninsured is Black......Black infants are more than twice as likely as White infants to die before their first birthday.....One in three Black children is poor.....Chicago loses more black kids than soldiers in Iraq to gun violence.....7.0% of Black children (767,200 children) had a parent in prison.....70 percent of African American children are born to unmarried mothers.....61% of black children "6.5 million"live in low-income families......Black children are 9 times more likely than White children to have a parent in prison....69% of Black children cannot read in the 4th grade.....Gunfire killed 3,365 children and teens in 1999 "more than 38 percent were Black youth.....Homicide is the leading cause of death among Black males ages 15 to 24.....Firearm death rate for Black males 15-19 is four times that of White males of the same age.....Nationally, Black youths under age 18 represent 15 percent of the juvenile population but make up 26 percent of juvenile arrests.....One of every two Black children lives in poverty.....More than half of Black children live in single-parent homes.....In some inner-city schools the drop out rate climbs higher than 75 percent.....A Black infant born in the U.S. is twice as likely to die before his or her first birthday



"We Only Have Each Other"


Children's Legislation in Tennessee Federal Legislation for Children and Families Contact Your Tennessee State Legislator
Donate to BCI BCI is a Member of.......

Cut the Red Tape Not Children's Health Care

Issue: Call on Congress to Cut the Red Tape Not Children's Health Care

Time Frame: Immediate Action

Critical Facts: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan supplemental appropriations bill that included an amendment with provisions to extend moratoria on seven regulations issued by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), as called for in H.R. 5613, Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008. Because of your action, the U.S. House passed H.R. 5613 bill with overwhelming, bipartisan support. In its version, the U.S. Senate also passed a supplemental appropriations measure that also included language to address the Medicaid regulations, in addition to a CMS directive that seeks to limit state efforts to provide health insurance coverage to children. Because of differences between the Senate and House bill, and a threat from Pres. Bush to veto the supplemental, the Senate returned its version of the bill to the House for further consideration.

Efforts are underway to undermine the progress made this year in Congress to address the harmful Medicaid regulations. The supplemental measure may be the best opportunity child advocates have this year to place a moratoria on all seven Medicaid regulations addressed in H.R. 5613.

Here's Our Opportunity:
Child advocates need to continue to fight back on potentially harmful decisions that could compromise state efforts to provide health care to children. We need to remind members of the U.S. House of Representatives to protect Medicaid services as called for in H.R. 5613. If the Medicaid regulations take full effect, services to vulnerable children will be quickly compromised and hard to reverse.

Take Action Now:
Call your House offices and ask them to reach out to House leadership. You can reach your members by calling the Capital Hill switchboard at 202-225-3121 or your local congressional office.

Tell them to contact House leadership and relay the message to keep all seven Medicaid regulation moratoria addressed in H.R. 5613 in the war supplemental. Remind them that the bill passed with overwhelming, bipartisan support. In addition, ask your members to support the Senate amendment addressing the August 17th SCHIP directive, which compromises states flexibility to extend health insurance coverage to children. Tell-a-friend!