September 18, 2009—The Children’s Alliance today released the following statement about federal health reform and health coverage for Washington’s children. Jon Gould, Deputy Director, said:

“We in Washington have done better than average in taking care of the health needs of our children. We were among the first states in the nation to pledge to cover every child by 2010. And we have built a coverage program, Apple Health for Kids, that has delivered comprehensive, affordable coverage to thousands of children who otherwise would have relied on the emergency room for their health care needs.

We expect health reform efforts in Washington, D.C. to support our state’s laudable goals for children’s health care—not work against them. Children must come out of federal health reform better off than they were before, not worse. Our Congressional delegation has a history of standing up for children’s health coverage. They stood up for kids when the Children’s Health Insurance Program faced reauthorization earlier this year, and we need them to stand up for kids again as health reform bills are amended and the process moves forward.

The Spokane Spokesman-Review published an op ed on August 29th from our Senior Food Policy Coordinator, Linda Stone. The piece talked about the growing need for summer food programs at a time when budget cuts are forcing many such programs to shut down. Here's an excerpt:

While many of us think of summer as a time of bounty, overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables, for low-income families summer can be a time of deprivation. For thousands of children in these families, going back to school means a return to at least two solid meals a day.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The Daily News in Longview picked up on our press release about the latest children's uninsurance numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau and wrote an editorial praising the state's commitment to covering kids. Here's an excerpt:

The Census Bureau data show that the number of uninsured children in this state held steady, at about 107,000, between 2007 and 2008, according to Children’s Alliance. The state advocacy group reported that 93.2 percent of children in the state had health coverage in 2008. Credit both Congress and Washington lawmakers for holding the line with regard to providing care for children....

September 10, 2009—Data released by the U. S. Census Bureau this morning show that 93.2 percent of children in Washington State had health coverage in 2008, the same rate as in 2007. The rate remained the same only because an increase in the number of children enrolled in public coverage made up for the loss of employer-based coverage.