With a little over a week for the Congressional super committee to complete its work, we must raise our voices to ensure Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are protected in the final deficit reduction package.
Tell Congress That Preserving Medicaid is Critically Important to Women and Families
The deadline for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (The Super-Committee) to reach an agreement is fast approaching.
Super Committee and Health Care: How Potential Cuts to Medicaid Could Harm Low-Income Women and Girls
“Shared sacrifices.” “Tough decisions.” “Everything is on the table.” This is the rhetoric being used to describe the Super Committee’s daunting task of reducing the national deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.
Dear Supercommittee: There’s Nothing “Super” about Cutting Medicaid
As a nation, our conversations often revolve around “family values.” Yet when it comes to showing that we truly value families, politicians sometimes fall short.
A Blog Rally to Protect Medicaid
There’s been a lot in the news lately about the so-called “supercommittee” in Congress, which has been tasked with trimming more than a trillion dollars from the federal deficit. It’s the supercommittee’s job to figure out which programs will get the budget axe.
Why Now is the Time to Support, Not Undermine, Medicaid
The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH), as the only national organization advocating for reproductive justice and health for millions of Latinas, their families and their communities, strongly urges the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or “Supercommittee” to reexamine their logic when considering cuts or reforms to Medicaid in order to achieve deficit reduction.
How Washington’s Budget Priorities Injure Immigrant Women
Many women in the United States take a huge step forward under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Welcome Progress, But the Final Verdict on ACOs Is Yet to Come
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may have done what once seemed impossible. Its final rule on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) seems to have put an end to the rancor and bitter debate on this particular issue, shaping a framework that just about all parties can accept.
Realizing the Full Potential of Health Reform
When it passed, we recognized the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation.
On the Right Track: Institute of Medicine’s Essential Benefits Report
America’s women and families want and need confidence that when they buy health insurance, it will cover comprehensive benefits that meet their needs. Thanks to health reform, we may soon get that.
In the Works: New Patient Rights
Patients and families may soon have a great opportunity to have more control over – and make improvements in – the health care they receive.
The Good, the Bad and the Hope for Breastfeeding Rights
Roughly four million women give birth in the United States every year – and most choose to breastfeed (74 percent). After all, the nutritional value of breast milk is well documented. Numerous studies show that breastfeeding protects mothers and children from a range of acute and chronic health conditions. But with two-thirds of today’s working women returning to work within three months of giving birth, the lack of supportive workplace policies and laws is forcing too many nursing mothers to quit breastfeeding early – or never start.
In Science v. Politics, Science Scores a Win
A milestone for women’s health is finally within reach: On Tuesday, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified the full range of FDA-approved contraception and birth control options as preventive health services – and recommended that they be made available to women without additional fees or co-payment under health care reform.
Cause for Hope in North Carolina
Infant mortality rates are widely used in this country and internationally as a barometer of the quality of a community’s, or a nation’s, health care system – and with good reason.
Time to Support Older Americans and their Caregivers, Not Undermine Them
Respect your elders. Many of us have been given that advice by our parents, grandparents, teachers and mentors for as long as we can remember. So why don’t our public policies better address the needs of our country’s seniors and their families, and why do some lawmakers seem poised to dismantle the policies that older Americans rely on?
Seniors in America Today: “Not a Pretty Picture”
Earlier this week, I was privileged to be a part of Volunteers of America’s third annual discussion on aging issues. I was on a panel with Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief; Mike King, National President and CEO of Volunteers of America, Inc.; and Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, AARP Executive Vice President of Multicultural Markets and Engagement. Our topic: How our nation’s public policies affect older Americans, especially women.
Relentless. Deceptive. Dangerous.
The “”war on women”” in the House of Representatives rages on.
The Affordable Care Act at One
This week is the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act – the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation.
Let’s Not Reverse Our Progress on Stopping HIV/AIDS
Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, when we should all pause to remember that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still shaping and taking too many lives, in the United States and around the globe.
Just When You Think You’ve Seen It All
Sometimes I think there’s not much that can surprise me. But last week proved that theory wrong: the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prohibit federal funds for health care services provided by Planned Parenthood, and eliminate funding for all Title X family planning services, which are the sole source of health care for millions of low-income and uninsured women in this nation.
