Children’s Health Fund kicks off every spring with a conference in Washington, D.C. that brings together the medical directors from the entire national network and staff members from CHF’s headquarters in New York City. This year, my co-fellow and I were lucky enough to tag along. The purpose of the meeting is to brief the medical directors, most of whom are doctors, on critical policy issues related to the health of medically underserved children in the U.S. After collaborative meetings with CHF’s policy team, the doctors head to Capitol Hill to serve as advocates.
The medical directors hold lobbying meetings with Members of Congress (or legislative aides) representing their states and the districts where their programs are located. In some cases, CHF-supported programs span multiple districts due to the mobile nature of their care. This year we focused on immigration reform’s potential impact on health insurance coverage for unauthorized immigrant children. Last month CHF released a white paper detailing why consistent coverage throughout childhood is extremely cost-effective as well as critical for preventive care and the diagnosis and treatment of chronic conditions.
During the Hill visits I had the chance to shadow the teams from the New York Children’s Health Project/South Bronx Health Center and the Harlem Children’s Health Project. All of our meetings took place with staff members rather than the Congresspeople themselves. Considering New York is one of four states (along with Massachusetts, Illinois, Washington) that provide coverage to children irrespective of immigration status and all of the offices we visited were Democratic, it was not critical to explain our perspective on why consistent coverage is necessary. Instead, the meetings allowed providers to speak as powerful witnesses to the perils of letting children’s health fall through the cracks. It’s difficult to disagree with the argument that childhood can’t be repeated and that kids can’t wait upwards of five years for medical coverage. Still, as we’d expected, staffers reflected on the political hurdles facing comprehensive immigration reform and the compromises it might take to get there.
Despite leaving slightly discouraged by this atmosphere on the Hill and the general politicization of health coverage for children, the conference fascinated me. While spending each day busily coordinating programs for patients in the Bronx it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of CHF’s policy work. In D.C. I observed the marriage between clinical practice and advocacy and grasped how firsthand accounts like those of the doctors provide an invaluable context for lawmakers. As I near the end of my fellowship, this kind of big-picture national advocacy interests me more and more. I am fortunate to have ended up with an organization that holds its nationwide programs to incredibly high standards while allowing clinicians themselves to effect change.