A convergence of factors-new leadership, high health care costs, a continuing decline in employer-based coverage, and limited options on the private insurance market coupled with a weakening economy-has created a strong impetus for national health reform. At the top of the agenda is how to provide the millions of people who are uninsured with high-quality coverage that is affordable.

The Center for Children and Families' (CCF) health reform work focus on the large stake that children and families have within this larger debate. The country has made significant strides in providing children have health coverage, and the new CHIP law took us even further. But CHIP reauthorization was never intended to be a substitute for broader health reform. As a result, millions of children remain uninsured and even those children who have health insurance will not necessarily get the child-specific care they need. Particularly troubling is that whether a child has health insurance is truly a game of chance-- depending on such arbitrary distinctions on whether the child lives in Kansas City, Kansas or Kansas City, Missouri or whether the child's parent works for a school district or a chain retail store.

CCF's program focuses, through research and policy analysis, on putting the the last pieces of the puzzle in place to ensure all children have high-quality, affordable health coverage by:
  • Building affordable pathways to coverage for all of America's children;

  • Taking further steps to ensure that every insurance card translates into children receiving the care that they need to develop and grow properly;

  • Creating a unified, "no wrong door" enrollment and renewal process to ensure all families can easily access coverage; and

  • Strengthening the financing of public programs, which serve as the backbone of the current coverage system for low-income children.
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