Day 6 - 1/23/2007

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Legislators had a full day of committee meetings today that were mostly organizational in nature.  This morning, Voices for Georgia’s Children, along with the Family Connection Partnership,  had the opportunity to brief the members of the House’s Children and Youth Committee on issues relating to the status of Georgia’s children.  Gaye Smith and Taifa Butler from the Family Connection Partnership presented Kids Count data specific to Georgia.  Pat Willis, the Executive Director of Voices, gave some brief introductory comments about the organization before introducing Lauren Waits, Voices’ Policy Director, who spoke about the PeachCare crisis. 

Lauren thanked the legislators for the actions that they have taken to urge Congress to fund PeachCare adequately.  She stated that PeachCare is a federal program and that Congress should fund the program.  She said, however, that children in Georgia should have health insurance coverage and that PeachCare provides coverage to 270,000 of Georgia’s kids.  Data shows that when kids have health insurance, they get better preventative care and have better health outcomes than uninsured kids. Lauren stated that the Georgia legislature can and should be prepared to act to save PeachCare in the event that Congress does not act.  Georgia has several options including expanding Medicaid coverage to serve kids who are currently enrolled in or eligible for PeachCare or passing safety net funding to fill in the budget gap until Congress acts.  There was only brief time for comments after Lauren’s remarks; committee members indicated that they share Voices sense of urgency and concern for the children enrolled in PeachCare.