Family Opportunity Act: Sen. Kennedy to offer FOA as Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill

SUMMARY

When Congress returns from the Independence Day recess on July 10, one of the Senate's first orders of business will be to pass the Department of Defense (DoD) authorization bill. Senator Kennedy (D-MA) plans to offer the Family Opportunity Act as an amendment to the DoD bill. This amendment is relevant to the DoD bill because in the 2001 reauthorization, a Family Opportunity Act like provision was added to Tri-Care to cover military families. If the opportunity of comprehensive health care is supported for disabled children of military families in our country, why wouldn't it be appropriate for other hard working American families with children with disabilities?

If you wish to contact your Senators to support the Kennedy Family Opportunity Act amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill when it comes to the Senate floor this month send them your message using LDA's Capwiz function.

BACKGROUND

Approximately 8% of children in the United States have significant disabilities. Many of these children do not have access to critical health care services. Many employer health plans or State Children Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) do not cover services that are essential for children with disabilities and enable them to remain at home, where they belong. Medicaid provides these critical comprehensive services. It is unfortunate that, in order to obtain Medicaid coverage, many families are forced to stay impoverished, become impoverished, give up custody of their children, or place their children in institutions. Studies have shown that families of children with significant disabilities are turning down jobs, turning down raises, turning down overtime, and are unable to save money for the future. Furthermore, there are very few community-based services for children with psychiatric disabilities, often resulting in placement in a psychiatric residential facility. The Family Opportunity Act is a family-friendly piece of bipartisan legislation that addresses the gap in access to health care for children with disabilities. The Act also begins to address the neglected needs for community-based services for families with children with psychiatric disabilities.

The Family Opportunity Act (S.183) was reintroduced in the Senate on January 26, 2005 by Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Kennedy (D-MA). It has close to 70 bipartisan co-sponsors. A House companion bill (HR 1443) was introduced by Rep. Sessions (R-TX) and Waxman (D-CA) along with 33 bipartisan co-sponsors on March 17, 2005.

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