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SUMMARY
When Congress returns from the Independence Day recess on July
10, one of the Senate's first orders of business will be to pass
the Department of Defense (DoD) authorization bill. Senator Kennedy
(D-MA) plans to offer the Family Opportunity Act as an amendment
to the DoD bill. This amendment is relevant to the DoD bill because
in the 2001 reauthorization, a Family Opportunity Act like provision
was added to Tri-Care to cover military families. If the opportunity
of comprehensive health care is supported for disabled children
of military families in our country, why wouldn't it be appropriate
for other hard working American families with children with disabilities?
If you wish to contact your Senators to support the Kennedy
Family Opportunity Act amendment to the Department of Defense authorization
bill when it comes to the Senate floor this month send
them your message using LDA's Capwiz function.
BACKGROUND
Approximately 8% of children in the United States have significant
disabilities. Many of these children do not have access to critical
health care services. Many employer health plans or State Children
Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) do not cover services that are
essential for children with disabilities and enable them to remain
at home, where they belong. Medicaid provides these critical comprehensive
services. It is unfortunate that, in order to obtain Medicaid coverage,
many families are forced to stay impoverished, become impoverished,
give up custody of their children, or place their children in institutions.
Studies have shown that families of children with significant disabilities
are turning down jobs, turning down raises, turning down overtime,
and are unable to save money for the future. Furthermore, there
are very few community-based services for children with psychiatric
disabilities, often resulting in placement in a psychiatric residential
facility. The Family Opportunity Act is a family-friendly piece
of bipartisan legislation that addresses the gap in access to health
care for children with disabilities. The Act also begins to address
the neglected needs for community-based services for families with
children with psychiatric disabilities.
The Family Opportunity Act (S.183) was reintroduced in the Senate
on January 26, 2005 by Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Kennedy (D-MA).
It has close to 70 bipartisan co-sponsors. A House companion bill
(HR 1443) was introduced by Rep. Sessions (R-TX) and Waxman (D-CA)
along with 33 bipartisan co-sponsors on March 17, 2005.
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