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U.S.
Senator Member: Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Ethics and Aging Committees |
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For Immediate
Release February 1, 2007 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Comm.
Director |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the Senate Finance Committee evaluates the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides a healthy start for six million children nationwide, United States Senator Ken Salazar today touted the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) program and announced his plans to make this groundbreaking program a permanent part of our Nation’s children’s health care system by including it in SCHIP. “How we take care of our children speaks to our very values as a society – healthy children need healthy mothers first,” said Senator Salazar. “It is our duty to provide our children with a healthy start in life. Nurse Family Partnership programs are extremely successful and should become a permanent part of SCHIP and federal health care programs.” The NFP exists in 21 states, including Colorado, and covers home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. The NFP was developed by David Olds at the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, and is recognized along with 10 other prevention and intervention programs as part of the Center’s “Blueprints for Violence Prevention” project. The NFP currently serves 2,000 families in Colorado, and nationwide has provided more than 69,000 women and children through 150 NFP programs with access to pre- and post-natal care while teaching parents how to lift their families out of poverty. 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). The benefits of the NFP “exceeded costs at a society-wide level,” according to a report by the respected non-partisan Brookings Institution released earlier this week. 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.” “Children are our most cost-effective investment. A program like the Nurse Family Partnership, that cuts health care costs, shrinks poverty and reduces crime among children and parents, is a win-win for taxpayers and families,” said Senator Salazar. In December 2006, a bipartisan group of Senators led by Senator Salazar urged the Bush Administration 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. A copy of Senator Salazar’s letter, co-signed by Senators Clinton (D-NY), Specter (R-PA) and former Senator DeWine (R-OH) can be viewed by clicking here. ### |
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