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The goal of the Disability Policy Collaboration is to impact national public policy for people with developmental disabilities, including those with cerebral palsy and intellectual disability, and their friends, families and loved ones.

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UCP and 10 Other National Groups Urge Congress to Increase Maternal and Child Health Block Grant

On April 17, UCP and ten other national groups wrote to members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, urging them to increase Fiscal Year 2002 funding of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services block grant. These groups requested $850 million for the block grant, which would be the entire amount authorized under current law, and $141 million more than the Fiscal 2001 spending amount.

The MCH block grant funds essential state and local programs that assist 1 million children with disabilities annually. A block grant funding increase would aid many of the 11 million children with disabilities who are not currently served by this funding source.

April 17, 2001

Dear Members of House/Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
[Personalized Letters Sent]:

The Friends of Title V, including the undersigned organizations, write to you concerning the FY 2002 appropriation for the Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services Block grant. The Friends of Title V seek $850 million for the block grant, fully funding the newly authorized level.

In his FY 2002 Budget, the President proposes to cut funding for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (Title V of the Social Security Act) by $5 million, $709 million in FY 2002 compared to $714 million in FY 2001. While this $5 million cut is the removal of an earmark for the Columbia Hospital for Women, the effect of this cut would be to level fund the block grant for a third straight year.

As advocates concerned about the health of our nation's pregnant women, children, adolescents, children with special health care needs, and their families, we implore you to reverse this cut and to support full funding of $850 million for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant. The block grant has only received modest increases since its establishment in 1981 and funding has not kept pace with inflation and does not currently reflect the increasing health care needs being addressed by the block grant.

As you begin deliberations on the FY 2002 appropriations bill, we call your attention to the progress the MCH programs have made in ensuring the health of pregnant women, mothers, children and adolescents, and to highlight the needs that still exist for these populations. In 1997, 24 million people received MCH-supported services, and in 1999, over 26 million received these services. Budgets reflect priorities and this budget impacts no constituency more important than children and their families. Fully funding the block grant would once again re-affirm that these populations and their families are a priority for this administration. To leave no child behind requires sufficient funding to meet the health care needs of children and their families.

It is both the ongoing success that MCH programs have achieved and the unmet needs in the community that support our recommendation for an appropriation of $850 million for the Maternal and Child Health Block grant in FY 2002. The President seeks in his budget to give states "the flexibility to make more efficient and effective use of Federal resources by allowing them to target funds to public health priorities at the state and local levels." The Title V block grant gives states these tools and much more. Currently, states leverage the federal block grant funds to meet an assortment of needs identified in their MCH five-year needs assessment. Title V funds not only identify needs, but help build the state public health infrastructure to meet and manage these needs, provide services to these populations, and track each state's progress in meeting their state's maternal and child health priorities. The MCH block grant is a crucial piece of our nation's health care safety net.

What is the Title V MCH Block Grant?
Authorized under Title V of the 1935 Social Security Act, today the MCH program remains the only federal program solely devoted to improving the health of all mothers and their children. The block grant though also reaches youth, adolescents, children with special health care needs, and families. Grants to state health agencies are used to meet locally determined needs, consistent with national health objectives and the Maternal and Child Health Block grant purposes.

The Title V MCH program complements related programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by providing uncovered or "wrap-around" services and access to care in underserved areas for uninsured, underinsured and publicly insured families. The Block Grant allows states the flexibility to enhance the capacity of local public health departments so that they have to ability to assess, develop, deliver, and evaluate quality MCH services, including adolescent health, injury and disease coordination, and care coordination for children with special health care needs.

What could be done with these additional funds for the MCH Block Grant?

  • Increased funding for the MCH Block Grant could provide services for more of the 12 million children with special health care needs who do not have comprehensive insurance, adequate access to specialty care or family support services.

  • Increased funding could expand school-based dental sealant programs for low-income children and establish demonstration projects that would enable states and communities to enhance clinical dental services for uninsured children as well as SCHIP and Medicaid beneficiaries.

  • Increased funding could enhance school health programs and develop screening programs at elementary and secondary school based health clinics.

  • Increased funding would allow for more extensive home visitation programs. Studies have shown that prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses improves women's prenatal health-related behavior and reduces rates of child abuse and neglect as well as maternal welfare dependence.

  • Increased funding for Title V could expand efforts for training, recruitment and retention of health care providers, strengthen enabling services such as transportation, case management and care coordination and provide services for more children with special health care needs.

For further information about the MCH Block Grant or the Friends of Title V, please call Deborah Dietrich, Director of Legislative Affairs for the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs at (202) 775-0436. Your time and attention on behalf of mothers, infants, children and their families are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

AIDS Action
AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth, & Families
American Association of University Affiliated Programs for Persons with Developmental Disabilities
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses
Easter Seals
March of Dimes
National Association of Children's Hospitals
United Cerebral Palsy Associations