Senator Ken Salazar Senator Arlen Specter
For Immediate Release April 3, 2007		CONTACTS: Cody Wertz – Salazar/ 303-350-0032 Kate Kelly – Specter/ 202-224-9020 Tamar Bauer – NFP National Svc Offc/ 866-864-5226 X374
Sens. Salazar, Specter Introduce Bill to Expand Nurse-Family Partnership to All 50 States WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar, along with Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, last week introduced the bipartisan Healthy Children and Families Act. The Healthy Children and Families Act would expand access to the highly-successful Nurse-Family Partnership through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, providing at-home nurse visits for up to 570,000 first-time mothers each year. “The success of the Nurse-Family Partnership is undeniable,” said Senator Salazar. “This program should be expanded to every community in this country, not just a select few.” “I am pleased to join Senator Salazar in his commitment to children’s health.” Senator Specter said. “The Nurse-Family Partnership empowers first-time mothers with the resources and knowledge to provide an environment in which children can reach their full potential.” “Demand for NFP services is growing in cities and counties around the nation, but lack of public funding has been the most significant barrier to date. This bill by Senator Salazar and Senator Specter will make it possible for more American families to benefit from evidence-based nurse home visitation services that have been proven to make a difference,” said Robert F. Hill, Nurse-Family Partnership Board Chair. The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) was developed by David Olds, Ph.D, of the University of Colorado’s Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health, and provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. Today, NFP operates 150 programs in 22 states, including Colorado, and has served more than 69,000 women and children nationwide, including 2,000 families in Colorado. The benefits of the NFP “exceeded costs at a society-wide level,” according to a report by the respected non-partisan Brookings Institution released in February, 2007. The report found that NFPs on average generated savings of $2.88 for every $1 invested, and noted, “At age four, children in the Nurse-Family Partnership were living in safer homes and in environments that were rated as more conducive to child development.” Other scientific studies have shown that programs like the NFP not only improve health quality among children and their families, but also reduce incidents of child abuse and neglect, improve child cognitive development and reduce children’s behavioral problems (including criminal activity). “Objective studies have shown the Nurse Family Partnership to be smart health care policy: highly cost-effective for taxpayers with real successes that can be seen in the tens of thousands of mothers and children who have better lives because of it,” said Senator Salazar. In December 2006, Senator Salazar led a bipartisan group of Senators, including Senator Specter, to urge the White House to include in its FY08 budget an incentive program to promote at the state and community level nurse visitation programs for first-time, low-income mothers. Earlier this year, Senator Salazar again highlighted the successful Nurse-Family Partnership in a Senate Finance Committee hearing, noting that the NFP “cuts health care costs, shrinks poverty and reduces crime among children and parents” and called the groundbreaking program “a win-win for taxpayers and families.” The text of Senator Salazar’s bill can be viewed by clicking here. # # #