NHSA's mission is to be our nation's voice in providing leadership and advocacy for health equity services and interventions that improve birth outcomes and family wellbeing.

President Obama has called for a bipartisan meeting to discuss health care.  The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 25 and streamed live in its entirety at WhiteHouse.gov.  Here are  useful links to information regarding the President’s health care proposal released Monday morning, as well as to information regarding Thursday’s meeting:

1.       The President’s Proposal – http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal

2.       Thursday’s bicameral bipartisan meeting at Blair House – http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting.

The President’s proposal builds off of the Senate health reform bill and includes a strong emphasis on disease prevention, wellness and public health activities.  As you may recall, the Senate proposal included the establishment of a home visitation program ($1.5 billion over 5 years) and a ‘Prevention and Public Health Fund’ ($7 billion over five years) that would support programs authorized by the Public Health Services Act including Healthy Start.  NHSA will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to ensure that the new prevention and wellness programs are directed specifically on reducing infant mortality, reducing the incidence of low birthweight babies and eliminating racial disparities in perinatal outcomes.

–Jon Terry, President, Capitol Youth Strategies LLC