The Office of Child Health Advocacy and Policy supports the advocacy goals of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Each year, Children’s works to positively influence federal, state, and local public policy decisions related to children’s health and well-being.
We work with departments throughout Children’s, patients and their families, health care professionals, community groups, and government officials. We are nonpartisan and proudly serve as child health experts and as a resource for our elected officials. We work for children!

Impact of proposed cuts in Medicaid programs serving children would be felt statewide

Minnesota children’s hospital leaders call on Governor Pawlenty and legislators to protect health care for children in Minnesota

As healthcare budget negotiations enter the final stage at the state Capitol, the leaders of two of Minnesota’s major children’s hospitals (Alan Goldbloom, MD, president and CEO of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and Margaret Perryman, president and CEO of Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul) on May 4, sounded an alarm bell, urging the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty to pull back from steep cuts proposed in Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people – including a huge population of children.

What Children Need in Health Reform

On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed the Children's Health Insurance Program Re-authorization Act, extending health insurance to 4 million additional children.

Both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) have made a major difference in children’s health care, providing health coverage to millions of low income and vulnerable children who would otherwise have been uninsured. They are logical building blocks in constructing a mix of public and private insurance to expand coverage to all children and all Americans. However, their success as components of health reform will depend of the extent to which the programs themselves are reformed.

The National Association of Children's Hospitals has developed two documents to guide the President and Congressional leaders in supporting children's needs during the upcoming health reform debate.

Principals for Children's Coverage in Health Care Reform
Make Health Reform Work for Children

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, held a news conference at Children's on March 8 to raise awareness of the sudden - and dramatic - increase in the cost of a drug commonly used to treat heart defects in premature infants. The drug has been used for more than 40 years. Children’s staff brought the inexplicable price increase to the attention of the Senator.




CEO and president Alan L. Goldbloom, MD, hosted U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison on a visit he made to Children’s in July. Rep. Ellison’s visit was part of an ongoing effort to ensure that our legislators are familiar with the work Children’s does, and are well-equipped to speak up on behalf of children and children’s hospitals on important legislative matters.



US. Rep. Michele Bachmann visited and toured Children’s on April 3. Bachmann spoke with Goldbloom and Mary Braddock, MD, director of child health policy, about the importance of Medicaid and about Children’s commitment to training the next generation of pediatric physicians.