Families Met With Brown During Children's Hospital Association Family Advocacy Day

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) met with the Bitter family, whose sons, Kai and Jasper, receive care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“Cincinnati Children’s Hospital provides medical care and compassion for families of children with disabilities, complex conditions, and chronic illness,” said Brown. “I appreciate the opportunity to meet families who’ve received care at these hospitals and hear their stories. We must continue improving access to care and health care coverage for our children.”

Brown met with the family during the Children’s Hospital Association’s Family Advocacy Day, an opportunity for families to share their stories with members of Congress and their staff.

Brown has worked to expand access to care for children. In January, Brown joined a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce legislation that would help coordinate care and improve health outcomes for children covered by Medicaid with medically complex conditions – a top legislative priority for these families and children’s hospitals across the country. The Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act of 2015, or “ACE Kids Act” would improve care coordination, quality measures, and cost containment for children in Medicaid who need specialized care and often need to cross state lines to get it. 

Brown also led efforts in the Senate to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  In February, he introduced the Protecting & Retaining Our Children’s Health Insurance Program (PRO-CHIP) Act. PRO-CHIP would extend funding for CHIP through fiscal year 2019. This bill was the baseline policy for the two-year CHIP extension that passed in April as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

Brown visited several hospitals and health centers who provide care for children to help advocate for an extension of CHIP, including:

Last Congress, Brown worked to reauthorize the Children’ Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program, which supports children’s health care by providing freestanding children’s hospitals with federal funding to train pediatricians and pediatric specialist. A five year reauthorization of the program was signed into law in April 2014.

 

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