When a family loses their small business or first home through bankruptcy because a child suffers a serious injury in a football game, we know we can't afford to delay reforming our nation's health care system. There are tens of thousands of uninsured Arkansas children and their families who cannot afford health insurance. They live in fear of not being able to pay for medical care.

From the beginning of this debate, AACF advocated for a plan that ensures comprehensive, affordable and accessible health care for Arkansas's low- and moderate-income children and their families without burdening our nation's budget. We are pleased that proposals so far take steps to do this. As we see the finish line in sight, we remind our policy makers that Arkansas children and families need action, affordability and accountability from health care reform.

Children and families need swift action on reform. We urge Congress to pass health care reform because children and their families can't wait any longer. Doing nothing is not an option. With so many Americans unemployed and deep cuts to state budgets, help for children and families cannot come soon enough. Health care reform will improve the physical and financial health of our country. We applaud House and the Senate for introducing fiscally responsible health reform proposals that do not add to our nation's deficit. Both plans provide reasonable and well-targeted financing options that should not be reduced so that we can meet the health care needs of our most vulnerable Americans.

Children and families need affordable health care. Health care must be a cost families can afford. Medicaid has successfully provided care to vulnerable Americans for decades, helping families' health and pocketbooks. Making more families eligible for Medicaid- up to 150 percent of poverty included in the House bill-will ensure that low-income families do not get caught paying more than they are able for coverage. The House bill also offers much better financial support to low- and middle-income families to purchase private insurance.

Children and families need reform that is accountable for better care. Under current proposals, some children may transition to different types of public or private coverage. No matter where kids end up, reform should make sure they receive comparable benefits and coverage to what they have today under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by including the Senate's two-year transition period to 2015. If a child's coverage changes, we cannot let them fall through the cracks and become uninsured or underinsured. Reform should provide concrete assurances that children smoothly transition into new coverage arrangements and that new plans will provide low-income children with comparable cost and benefits. Well over two-thirds of our state's uninsured children are already eligible for ARKids First. Enrollment for children eligible for Medicaid and CHIP (ARKids First in Arkansas) should be much easier for families. We also encourage our leaders to maintain critical preventive supports in the final bill, including evidence-based home visiting and better access to primary care through increased Medicaid reimbursement rates.

AACF thanks our delegation for their hard work on reform and urges them to take the best of both bills with our state's low-income, working families in mind. We have never been this close to meaningful reform and are counting on our leaders to finish the job and get a bill to the President's desk.

Rich Huddleston, Executive Director