Bruce Lesley

A poll released earlier this week answers the question directly and reveals strong public support for protecting federal investments in health care, including Medicare but also Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Key findings from the survey include:

• Voters believe children in America fare poorly. By a margin of 58-20 percent, or by almost a 3:1 margin, a majority of voters believe that the lives of children in America have gotten worse rather than better in the last ten years, including a quarter (26 percent) who believe children’s lives have gotten much worse. Republican voters are the most concerned, as they believe the lives of children are worse by a margin of 62-16 percent, an almost 4:1 margin.

• Voters strongly oppose the $771 billion billion in proposed cuts to Medicaid and the funding shortfall created in the Chi

Health reform will not only reduce the budget deficit in the next ten years by more than $100 billion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, but more importantly, it also will ensure that an estimated 32 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured can get high quality, affordable health coverage they can rely on.

For our nation’s children, especially low-income children and those children with special health care needs, it is indisputable they are better off today because of the health reform legislation signed into law a year ago today. Because of the “Affordable Care Act,” insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions or place annual or lifetime caps on coverage. These provisions have already gone into effect and so the child in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or the 8 year-old with leukemia being treated in any of our nation’s public hospitals will no longer be denied cov

Dr. Donald Berwick is an outstanding and superb appointee to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He is a leading expert on health care quality, health delivery systems, health systems transformation, and an accomplished pediatrician. The appointment fills a critically important post of overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and is long overdue, as CMS has been without leadership for over three years.

Although people can complain about the recess appointment, what is more disturbing is how the Senate confirmation process has become so convuluted and destructive that is amazing that anybody these days would actually want to go through the process. I have immense respect for people like Gail Wilensky, Tom Scully, and Mark McClellan for having put themselves through the process in the past and for having performed well as public servants. However, the fact is that no senator ever proposed holding up their nominations in the way that people were talking about with respect to Dr. Berwick's nomin

For many of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, early insurance reforms will be extremely helpful. This cannot be overstated.

It is unfortunate that some, such as contributor John Goodman, seek to dismiss the importance of eliminating lifetime caps and pre-existing condition exclusions as impacting “only a small fraction of people.” In fact, these early reforms are nothing less than a lifeline for those with cancer, asthma, diabetes, spina bifida, bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, and a range of other conditions that lead insurance companies to deny or limit coverage every day. As George Washington University Professor Sara Rosenbaum has pointed out, “a child who develops autism, or cancer, or sickle cell disease, or cystic fibrosis should not face discrimination either at the point of enrollment or following enrollment.” For children, this is nothing less than a life or death issue. A child living with a congenital heart condition can reach the “lifetim

In signing the historic health care reform legislation yesterday, President Obama ushered in a new era that will make great strides to address serious problems with our current health care system. These improvements cover an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans, move toward a system of prevention, and use information technology and incentives to modernize and improve health quality.

For children, health reform came on the heels of the passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). Children’s advocates supported the President’s promise to “build upon what works” and let people keep the coverage they have. CHIPRA provided enough funding to dramatically cut the uninsured rate for children in half by 2013, which currently stands at just over 8 million. As a result, health care reform truly begins with children, as the most significant progress that will be made on health coverage over the next few years will actually be due to the renewal and expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).