MomsRising is in the CA Capitol Today!

Right now, moms are coming to California's Capitol in Sacramento with funny glasses and an important message from CA MomsRising members: "Vision benefits for kids in the Healthy Families Program shouldn't be on the chopping block. All eyes are focused on making sure the budget preserves essential health programs for kids that are critical for success in school. The budget shouldn't be balanced on the backs of kids."

You can provide online back-up for our on-the-ground volunteers in Sacramento by sending a letter to your legislator. We've provided one below; feel free to edit the letter to include your own voice.

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Dear friend, At this moment, moms are coming to CA's Capitol in Sacramento with funny glasses and an important message from CA MomsRising members: "Cutting vision benefits for kids is short-sighted policy! Our leaders need glasses!" You don't have to go to Sacramento to make a difference! From the comfort of your own computer, right now, you can provide online back-up for our on-the-ground volunteers in Sacramento by sending a letter to your legislator. Make sure your legislator knows that the MomsRising members in the Capitol today represent hundreds of MomsRising members across California who are relying on them to protect our children from disastrous cuts to their healthcare. http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/CA_Budget_5-19-2010/?source=taf What's the lowdown? On Friday, the Governor released his revised budget for California, dealing another big blow to kids and families. In addition to increases in co-pays and premiums for kids in Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families Program, vision coverage would be completely eliminated for kids in the Healthy Families Program. Talk about a short-sighted policy! That's why hundreds of CA MomsRising members sent letters last week to the Governor and leaders in the California legislature urging them not to balance the budget on the backs of kids. To make sure those letters are noticed, MomsRising is doing an in-person delivery TODAY of the printed messages from MomsRising members to the Governor and key California legislators, attached to funny cardboard reading glasses to make sure our message is crystal clear: Vision benefits for kids in the Healthy Families Program shouldn't be on the chopping block. All eyes are focused on making sure the budget preserves essential health programs for kids that are critical for success in school. The budget shouldn't be balanced on the backs of kids. MomsRising is at the Capitol now and needs you to alert your legislators!: http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/CA_Budget_5-19-2010/?source=taf Why the delivery? We need CA legislators to "see us clearly" asking them to stand strong for CA kids! A strong package for children's health coverage is vital to ensure healthy development, to prevent and manage chronic conditions, and to help children succeed in school and in life. For example, children need dental coverage - but over 500,000 California children missed one or more school day as a result of oral health problems, costing school districts almost $30 million in 2007. Children also need vision coverage in order to read, see the blackboard in class, and play safely during recess. For the roughly 4.5 million children in California who rely on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families as their only source of affordable health coverage, it is absolutely critical that the health, dental, and vision benefits of these programs be preserved. Let's give the MomsRising members at the Capitol some back up! It's easy to show your support: http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/CA_Budget_5-19-2010/?source=taf And please pass this link along to your CA friends and neighbors! Thanks!

Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger, Senate President Steinberg, Speaker Perez, Assembly Republican Leader Garrick, and Senate Republican Leader Hollingsworth:
Cc: CA Budget Committees,

At this moment, moms are coming to CA's Capitol in Sacramento with funny glasses and an important message from CA MomsRising members: "Cutting vision benefits for kids is short-sighted policy!  Our leaders need glasses!" Last week, one thousand MomsRising members from all over California signed on to a petition letting you know that their eyes are focused on making sure the May Revise budget proposal preserves essential health programs for kids that are critical for their success in school.

Federal law requires the maintenance of Medi-Cal and Healthy Families eligibility levels, and MomsRising members are watching to make sure these laws are carried out--and that the state budget does not weaken the availability and quality of children's health coverage by eliminating particular benefits, raising premium levels, or increasing co-payments for services.

We know that times are tough and some cuts are necessary, but eliminating access to and increasing costs for basic preventive healthcare services for children is short-sighted and causes real harm to California’s families already struggling in this economy.

“My 5th grade son wears glasses, paid for by Medi-Cal. He always scores Advanced in his CST scores and last year scored 100% for both English and Math. That is not a typo. He cannot see the board at school without glasses, even if he is seated at the front of the room. If you take away our ability to get him glasses, that is seriously going to impair his ability to perform well at school. The kids with medical needs are NOT the place to make your budget cuts.” –Kelly, Monrovia

“You want better students, better grades, better federal funding status, better state educational ranking? Then the first step is that all the kids need to be able to see to read and to see what the assignment is written up on the chalkboard.” –Dave, Oxnard

“My daughter wears glasses and we are HF recipients. Glasses cost over $100. I hope they don't cut this.” –Julie, Cardiff

A robust benefit package for children's coverage is vital to ensure healthy development, to prevent and manage chronic conditions, and to help children succeed in school and in life. For example, children need dental coverage - but over 500,000 California children missed one or more school day as a result of oral health problems, costing school districts almost $30 million in 2007. [1] Children also need vision coverage in order to read, see the blackboard in class, and play safely during recess. For the roughly 4.5 million children in California who rely on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families as their only source of affordable health coverage, it is absolutely critical that the health, dental, and vision benefits of these programs be preserved.

Over the past two years, the number of uninsured children in California increased from 1.1 million to 1.5 million. [2] Living without insurance can literally mean life or death for children -- a recent Johns Hopkins study found that children hospitalized without insurance had a 60% higher mortality rate than those with insurance. [3]

Despite difficult budget decisions, federal health reform is an opportunity for California to strengthen coverage for children and families, and to support the future fiscal health of our state. With the recent enactment of the federal healthcare law and with an increasing numbers of uninsured children in California, now is not the time to cut children’s health benefits. We urge you to seize the opportunities presented by health reform and we stand ready to work with you to implement reform in California.

Sincerely,