Our mission is to draw upon the science base of the university setting to inform policies, programs, and the practice of maternal and child health nationally. The Center works as a multi-disciplinary, interdepartmental faculty team to provide timely information useful to public and private sector Maternal and Child Health (MCH) professionals, and to elected officials and other policymakers.

With fewer employers offering affordable and comprehensive health insurance to their workers, more working families are turning to government programs like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance program. That's contributing to the explosive growth in the costs of these taxpayer-funded programs. The advocacy group Good Jobs First has compiled information on which employers have the most workers and their children enrolled in Medicaid and S-Chip in nine states.

This National Assembly on School-Based Health Care paper reviews a recent discussion among educators, school-based health center providers, and evaluators about the link between school-based health care and academic success. In addition to research and recommendations, the paper offers guidance on strategies to enhance the collaboration between School-Based Health Clinics and educators to improve student success and sustain the viability of the health programs.

Among the several hundred pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the 109th Congress are a number of bills that affect children and child health—including topics like bullying, immunization, school pest management, children's health insurance programs (CHIP and SCHIP), and abortion. All of the bills have been referred to their appropriate committees, and it's expected that hearings will be held later in the session. (To follow the progress of legislation, or to read the full text of any of the bills, go to Thomas, the Library of Congress Web site) and enter the bill number.

Illness and medical bills caused half of the nearly 1.5 million personal bankruptcies in 2001—and more than three-quarters of bankruptcy claimers had health insurance at the start of their illness, according to researchers at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School. The study, published as a Web exclusive in Health Affairs, estimates that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans annually, including about 700,000 children. Most of the medical bankruptcy filers were middle class. In news coverage, lead author Dr. David Himmelstein has said many Americans are "just one serious illness away from bankruptcy."

It might be an unexpectedly high electric bill on the heels of the expensive dental emergency, or a slip-sliding winter fender bender just when you need to pay the fuel oil bill -- for too many families, such minor but unexpected financial shocks can spell disaster. For some of them, the Modest Needs Foundation comes to the rescue. Jim Daniels reports.

Studies show that over time, children in poor families and African American and Latino children have less access to health care and worse health outcomes than middle-class or non-Hispanic white children. Public Private Ventures explores a number of strategies to use center-based child care to improve child development and health outcomes. Among them: training child care staff, providing a link to health services, and using the center to educate parents about healthy development and health coverage programs. The report suggests using local child care referral and resource agencies to boost the number of families who have access to health care services and referrals.

A new study from the Urban Institute finds that growing enrollments, not inefficiency, are driving the recent big increases in Medicaid spending. Published in the online edition of Health Affairs, the study finds that Medicaid spending rose by one-third between 2000 and 2003—mostly due to growing enrollment, as more people qualified for aid as the economy declined. In fact, say researchers, Medicaid has done better than private insurers at holding down spending increases for acute care services.

Voices for Utah Children promotes sound, far reaching program and policy solutions that focus on early care and education, health care, child welfare and violence prevention.

HHS Redistributes $643 Million in Unspent Federal SCHIP Funds After a
drawn-out debate, the US Department of Health and Human Resources will
redistribute $643 million in unspent State Children's Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP) funds, helping 28 states avoid funding shortfalls in
2005.