New NEACH Staff & Legislative Updates
Dear Partners,
In this alert we introduce you to Patrick Tigue, NEACH's new Children's Health Care Coordinator, provide you with links to our newly updated 2010 state legislative tracking pages, and remind you to sign on to our "Health Reform Can't Wait" petition.
New NEACH Staff Member
We are very excited to announce that Patrick Tigue has joined the NEACH team as our Children's Health Care Coordinator. In this position, Patrick will provide federal and state-based advocacy support and perform policy analysis on topics related to children's health care issues, particularly pediatric quality of care.
Prior to joining Community Catalyst, Patrick performed Medicaid policy analysis as a Business Development Coordinator at Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. He also served as a Health Insurance Analyst for the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, focusing on issues related to the uninsured. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master's of Public Policy degree with a specialization in health policy from Brown University. You can reach Patrick at 617-275-2931 or ptigue@communitycatalyst.org.
State Legislative Tracking
NEACH has been tracking the status of children's health care bills in each of the New England states and recently updated our state web pages with this new information. We wanted to share these pages with you to give you a better sense of the children's health care work being done across the region. Please click on the links below to view each state's Children's Health Legislative Priorities page. We included brief descriptions of some of the bills we are tracking in each state.
If you are currently tracking or working on a bill that is not listed on these pages, please contact Maia Fedyszyn (617-275-2871 or mfedyszyn@communitycatalyst.org) with information about the bill. We would be happy to add it to our list.
Connecticut
Current state bills would:
- Create a catastrophic medical expenses pool
- Require health insurance policies to provide coverage for services received at school-based health centers
- Require school age children to provide proof of health insurance
Maine
Current state bills would:
- Help protect health care consumers from catastrophic debt
- Require private insurance coverage for certain services for children with disabilities
- Improve dental insurance coverage for Maine children
Massachusetts
Current state bills would:
- Ban junk food in schools
- Establish 12 month continuous eligibility for children receiving health coverage through MassHealth
- Expand MassHealth eligibility to cover youth up to age 21
New Hampshire
Current state bills would:
- Establish a commission relative to children's health insurance to explore new state options available through CHIPRA
- Require body mass index be assessed in students in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10
- Limit the use of child restraint practices in schools and treatment facilities
Rhode Island
Current state bills would:
- Require coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders
- Require insurance companies to reimburse for mental illness and substance abuse coverage at comparable rates to similar medical services
- Establish minimum reimbursement rates for certain physicians
Vermont
Current state bills would:
- Implement federal options in the SNAP program to improve the nutrition of low-income children
- Promote positive behavioral intervention and supports in schools and reduce the use of physical restraints
- Allow the family court to extend child support beyond the age of 18 for an individual with significant disabilities
Health Reform Can't Wait Petition
If you haven't done this already, please don't forget to sign our "Health Reform Can't Wait" petition to Congress and pass it on to your friends and partners. This is a public petition, so each person in your organization and coalition can sign it and pass it on to their professional and personal networks. This is an excellent way to dispel the myth that Americans do not support reform - everyone who wants to fix our broken health care system should stand up and be counted.
As always, please feel free to contact me (617-275-2929, arosenthal@communitycatalyst.org) directly with any questions.
Sincerely,
Amy Rosenthal
Project Director
