Hillary Clinton and Bill Frist on Health Care for America's Kids
NO
child in America should be denied the chance to see a doctor when he or
she needs one — but if Congress doesn’t act soon, that’s exactly what
might happen.
For the past
18 years, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has provided
much-needed coverage to millions of American children. And yet, despite
strong bipartisan support, we are concerned that gridlock in Washington
and unrelated disputes over the Affordable Care Act could prevent an
extension of the program. As parents, grandparents and former
legislators, we believe that partisan politics should never stand
between our kids and quality health care.
We
may be from different political parties, but both of us have dedicated
our careers to supporting the health of children and their families.
This shared commitment inspired us to work together in the late 1990s to
help create CHIP to address the needs of the two million children whose
families make too much money to be covered by Medicaid, but cannot afford private insurance.
The
resulting program, a compromise between Republicans and Democrats,
disburses money to the states but gives them flexibility to tailor how
they provide coverage to meet the needs of their own children and
families. Some expanded Medicaid; others created separate programs. As a
result, the number of uninsured children in America has dropped by
half. Children miss less school because of illness or injury, and we’ve
seen a significant decline in childhood mortality.
Just as a healthy diet and physical activity help toddlers
grow, reading and talking to them helps their brains develop and build
language skills that form the foundation for learning the rest of their
lives. / Getty Images
Written by
Bill Frist
As a surgeon, I understand the exigency of a window of
opportunity. In cardiac transplant, procurement of a donor heart starts a
strict four-hour window until that heart needs to be beating in the
chest of the accepting patient — a patient who is almost always a plane
ride away.
Neuroscience research has revealed a similarly crucial
window of opportunity. Between birth and 5 years old, 90 percent of a
child’s brain development occurs, and at a lightning-fast pace. Every
sight, smell, sound and sensation makes an impact. Long before most
children step foot into a classroom, neurons are building networks,
cognition is exploding, language is developing, and the foundations are
being laid for a lifetime of learning.
Outside of that five-year
window, you lose opportunities you may never get back. Children who
don’t develop sufficient language skills in those first years are up to
six times more likely to experience reading problems in school. When
children fall behind in reading, every other aspect of education
suffers.
Hillary Clinton