Elie Ward – Director of Policy and Advocacy for the New York State District of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Executive Director of Chapters 2 & 3
(The New York American Academy of Pediatrics, Chapter 2, collaborates with the other two chapters to form a strong, expert and respected voice for children in our state capital. As another legislative session ended this June, Elie Ward, MSW, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the New York State District of the American Academy of Pediatrics, provides an update on the status of issues for which pediatricians across the state strongly advocated. Mrs. Ward is also Executive Director of Chapters 2 & 3.)
Your hard work of visits, calls and e-mails to our state leaders did make life better for children and families across New York State this year.
Two major wins that will have a positive impact on the lives of millions of children across the state are:
- Increase in Minimum Wage
This year, working in coalition with many organizations across the state, we can claim victory on passing one of the largest increases in the Minimum Wage in the country. Increasing the Minimum Wage is the most direct and effective way to address child poverty. Here in New York State we took a giant step this year with minimum wage moving to $15 downstate and incrementally from $12.50 to $15 dollars upstate as the economy allows. This legislated increase will do more the address child poverty across our state than any other option available to our state government. Our voices, which focused on the direct positive impact on children across the state, made a difference in this campaign.
- Paid Family Leave
Again, working in a large coalition, we were able to get a generous and real Paid Family Leave program passed in NYS. Families will now be able to take care of family needs at challenging times, birth, adoption, serious illness, and not worry about losing their jobs or losing all of their income. Paid Family Leave is a crucial family support service that is important to all families as they struggle with balancing the complex needs of financial support for families to keep stable and the emotional social needs of taking care and building strong bonds to keep families together. Paid Family Leave is a pro-family initiative that has finally come to NYS. Again, our voices, which focused on the impact on early brain and child development and early bonding strengthened the arguments in favor of Paid Family Leave.
Other legislative victories include passage of:
Insurance Coverage of Donor Breast Milk for high risk premature babies weighing less than 3.5 lbs, whose Moms for various reasons cannot breastfeed, or supply their own milk.
Minor’s Consent to HPV Immunization addresses conflict between Minor’s Consent Law and Immunization Law. Passage of this legislation bridges the conflict and allows Minors to Consent to their own HPV immunizations.
Crib Safety and Safe Sleep This legislation requires the State Department of Health and the State Department of Consumer Affairs to clearly inform parents about the dangers of drop side cribs, recalls of unsafe cribs and provide information about safe sleep options for newborns and infants. Implementation of the legislation will create more voices talking to parents about the importance of safe sleep, amplifying pediatric counseling at well baby visits.
We also were able to secure Executive Orders to Raise the Age of Criminality in NYS to 18 and to deny any coverage for Conversion Therapy in NYS. Although we are appreciative of the Executive Orders on these two issues, we will continue to advocate for legislation, so the protections afforded cannot be challenged.
In addition, although we did not get our legislative fix for the Maternal Depression Screening payment challenge, we are being advised that the Department of Health will be coming out with a regulatory fix that will allow pediatricians to bill the screening to the child. It is anticipated that we will see this fix before Labor Day.
Key Legislative Initiatives That Did Not Become Law This Year Include:
- E-Cigarettes Added to the Indoor Clean Air Act
- Child Safe Products Act
- Gun Safe Storage
- Collective Bargaining Rights for Physicians
But we will be back next year and will fight again for budget and legislative protections for the children and families of New York. As you all know, advocacy is a long term process, what we don’t get one year, we can and will get the next year or the year after that.
Our goal, to improve the health and well being of all the children in New York motivates us to be consistent and strong in raising our voices for children. When we win we celebrate. When we lose, we take a breath and then plan how to come back and win. That’s Advocacy!!!