The Governor’s Budget Keeps Promises to New York’s Children and the Doctors Who Care For Them

ALBANY, NY (01/22/2008)(readMedia)-- The Academy of Pediatrics, District II, NYS enthusiastically supports Governor Spitzer’s children’s health initiatives as presented in his 2008 State Budget. The Governor’s plan to provide health coverage for New York’s 400,000 uninsured children, and provide the state resources to pay for it, indicates his firm commitment to the children of New York.

“Since the federal government has refused to accept responsibility for coverage of all children, the State of New York, under the leadership of Governor Spitzer, has stepped up to the plate and kept its promise to our state’s children and families. As we move forward working with the administration, we look forward to providing a high quality Medical Home to every child in New York,” said Henry Schaeffer, MD, Chair AAP, District II, NYS.

Expanding Medicaid to adolescents who are in or transitioning from foster care through age 21 is another action which shows the keen interest the administration has to keep children connected to health care. “We have advocated for the expansion of Medicaid to cover these highly vulnerable teens for several years. We are delighted to learn that the Governor has found way to provide health coverage for these youngsters who have had such a hard time moving toward adulthood,” said Danielle Laraque, Vice Chair of AAP, District II,

The Governor has also provided budget support to help secure passage of Healthy Schools Act. The provisions of the Health Schools Act will assure healthy food choices for all children attending schools in New York. Providing financial support to schools to make the transition to healthy food will create the needed incentives to actually get healthy food into most schools across the state. The Governor’s Budget is also continuing support for his programs to address the epidemic of childhood obesity. Taken together, these budget and legislative initiatives have the potential to improve the health and life chances of millions of New York children.

The mission of the American Academy of Pediatrics is to work with parents, state leaders, and other health care, education and community leaders to attain optimal physical, mental and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The Governor’s budget offers detailed financial and program plans to bring health insurance coverage to New York’s 400,000 uninsured children, move New York’s schools toward offering only healthy foods to students, create programs to fight childhood obesity, asthma and childhood diabetes and offer some of our most vulnerable adolescents an ongoing connection to health care. The Executive Budget and the programs it supports, creates a strong foundation for New York to build a high quality Medical Home for every child from Buffalo to the tip of Long Island.

The AAP has, for the last two decades worked to help New York provide high quality health care to more and more children through expansion of eligibility and expansion of covered services in public, public/private and private health coverage. The Governor’s Budget supports strengthening all aspects of children’s health care, from expanded coverage for children and adolescents, to additional investments in enrollment help, to increased payment to providers for primary care, to exploration of better ways to purchase and distribute vaccines, to enhanced efforts to address public health problems like obesity and asthma.

Pediatricians across New York, the doctors who take care of all of our children, look forward to working with the Governor and our legislative leaders to implement the Governor’s children’s health initiatives and improve the health and the quality of life for every child in our state.

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