Washington D.C.
304 Russell Bldg.
Third Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742
Boston
One Bowdoin Square
Tenth Floor
Boston, MA 02114
(617) 565-8519
Springfield
Springfield Federal Building
1550 Main Street
Suite 304
Springfield, MA 01101
(413) 785-4610
Fall River
222 Milliken Place
Suite 312
Fall River, Ma 02721
(508) 677-0522 |
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03/11/2005
Statement of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems in Support of the “Kids Come First Act of 2005” (S. 114)
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The National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH) represents more than 100 of America’s metropolitan area safety net hospitals and health systems. NAPH hospital systems serve unique roles in their communities, often as the largest provider of inpatient and ambulatory care to Medicaid patients and patients without insurance and as providers of essential services needed by everyone in their communities, such as trauma and burn care services. NAPH members also provide high volumes of children's services. A number of NAPH member health systems include a children's hospital, and many of those systems that do not include a separate children's facility provide highly specialized children's services through their neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. In the markets they serve, NAPH members provide 28 percent of the pediatric intensive care beds and operate 26 percent of the neonatal intensive care beds, often providing highly specialized care to sick newborns who are transferred from other hospitals that do not have the capacity to provide these services.
NAPH supports all efforts to expand access to health coverage, and supports the “Kids Come First Act of 2005” (S. 114), which would provide healthcare coverage to more than nine million uninsured children in the United States. This proposal is a bold step toward ensuring that all children have access to health insurance coverage. We are pleased that this proposal recognizes the value of encouraging state-federal partnerships, encouraging states to expand coverage within the framework of Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and eliminating SCHIP funding caps for states that expand eligibility for children, while also offering states options for incremental child coverage expansions.
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