More than nine million children and their families who rely on CHIP for affordable health care are now at risk of losing their coverage. That’s more than nine million reasons Congress must act now to fund the program and protect kids’ current and future health,” write National Partnership President Debra Ness and Senior Health Policy Analyst Stephanie Glover.
The push for paid parental, family, and medical leave is gaining traction. But legislative action in Congress is still iffy and could easily be eclipsed by events or partisan rancor over the next year.
Those who advocate for expanding paid-leave policies, such as National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra Ness, remain optimistic that it is a matter of if, not when. “Winning paid family and medical leave may finally be inevitable — but how fast we get there remains an open question,” Ness says.
Statement of Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families
Statement of Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families
Austin City Council voted unanimously late Thursday night to develop a policy for private employers to offer paid sick leave to their workers.
As elected officials, Governor Hogan and I already have access to earned paid sick days. Don’t all Marylanders deserve that same opportunity?
Childbirth Connection’s Listening to Mothers’ Survey II found that “9 percent [of mothers] met full criteria for PTSD following their births, and an additional 18 percent had PTSS.”
Unlike many parents, [Brent Wright] and his spouse faced some unique challenges. Because both are men, neither parent had access to a paid maternity leave policy. Because they adopted, their time away from the office began with travel to a nearby city to meet the birth mother.
Statement of Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families
The Rhode Island legislature considered a paid sick leave bill last year, but it didn’t get much traction. That’s when a number of different factors intervened.
Statement of Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families
“The whole thing is egregious,” said Katie Martin, vice president of health policy and programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families. She called the bill “an absolute disaster for women and families who rely on affordable healthcare to thrive in society.”
Statement of Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families
“There aren’t clear answers” to what would happen if the bill becomes law in its current form and takes effect in January, said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, a reproductive rights advocacy group. “I think it’s going to create chaos.”
[Sen. Kirsten] Gillibrand has introduced the [FAMILY Act] twice before, but supporters are hopeful that this time will be different because support for paid leave appears to be growing.
When filmmaker Ky Dickens learned she was about to become a mother, her doctor advised her that she would need at least 12 weeks of maternity leave to heal after giving birth to her daughter.
Washington’s [state Senator Joe] Fain said when the Legislature looked at who had access to paid leave in the state and who did not, and which employers were able to offer the benefit and which were not, it was a “stark picture.”
“As Congress considers what programs and initiatives to fund, we want members to know that women are watching and we won’t stand for any funding cuts that would undermine the health, well-being and economic security of this nation’s women and families,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families.
The researchers found that workers without paid sick leave benefits reported a statistically significant higher level of psychological distress. They also are 1.45 times more likely to report that their distress symptoms interfere “a lot” with their daily life and activities compared to workers with paid sick leave.
