Title: More Child Care Legislation Needed in 1991
Category: Positive Parenting
The American Academy of Pediatrics is working closely with Congress to
try to increase healthy insurance availability for many of the poor children
in our society who are not receiving adequate basic care needs.
About 13% of American children (about 8l.3 million) have no health
insurance at all, private or public. Millions
more are underinsured and do not receive all the vaccines or the well child
care visits they need. The 102nd
Congress will be under pressure by consumers, business and labor leaders
and health professionals to solve the problems of these uninsured and underinsured
children. With 1992 elections
looming, politicians will be hopefully facing the issue intelligently and
working out a carefully planned universal coverage program phased in over
time to help these children. It
is certainly most humane to take care of children first in the spectrum of
individuals in our society who need health care and to make sure they get the
basic disease preventing boosters and adequate nutrition and iron intake,
etc. so that they can grow up
healthy and be self supporting. This
has been shown in study after study to be money saving over the long run and the
most intelligent use of health dollars.
Hopefully as a society with good congressional leadership and with
the American Academy of Pediatrics input we will make taking good care of
all the babies in our society a top priority in our future.
Another important area of child care legislation which will be faced by
the 102nd Congress in 1991 and 1992 includes
the
family and medical leave bill which was vetoed by President Bush in 1990.
With new elections in 92 he and other political candidates will certainly
be under pressure to pass this bill or some form of it.
The bill would guarantee American employees up to twelve weeks of
unpaid leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or a sick child,
spouse or parent. Research and
common sense tells you that establishing a solid bond with your new baby is
critical for healthy physical and emotional growth of the child and the relation
ship of
the entire family. This is also
important for any newly adopted child regardless of age and is important
when a spouse or parent is sick. Pediatricians
all know the critical importance of having a parent present when a sick
child is hospitalized and the power of that parent's love and support in the
healing of their child. We must
begin to legislatively provide support for these important family life
needs to catch up with the many other modern industrialized countries which
have had this in place for over ten years.