Print This Page     Email this to a Friend

Local Pediatric Patient Joins 50 Other Kids on Capital Hill 06/25/2009 Five-year-old Blake Wilson, born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, has had three open-heart surgeries in the past five years at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital of Tampa. Last week, Blake and his parents traveled to Washington, DC, along with 50 other pediatric patients from across the country, to share their experience with their representatives on Capitol Hill. The trip to the nation’s capital was part of the 2009 National Association of Children’s Hospitals (N.A.C.H.) Family Advocacy Day event, which brings together pediatric patients of children’s hospitals across the country to stress the importance of having a national health reform legislation that includes affordable health insurance coverage for all children and access to high-quality, specialized care. While in Washington, the Wilson family met with Representatives Putnam, Castor and Bilirakis, urging them to remember that children’s health needs are unique and often require specialized care, and that health reform efforts should reflect those needs. “Without the care we received from St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, our lives would be drastically different than they are today,” said Blake’s mother, Adrianne Wilson. “We want to make certain that Congress understands how unique and critical the care delivered at children’s hospitals across the country is, and that in their efforts to improve our health care system, they keep the needs of our children in mind,” she added. Nearly nine million children in the United States still lack health coverage. And while millions of children are covered by Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, gaps in access to care exist because access to care is often blocked by low reimbursement rates for services and limited by physician participation in these programs. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to improve our health care system,” said Lawrence McAndrews, president and CEO of N.A.C.H. “Covering all children is an achievable first step towards covering all Americans,” he added. For more information on Family Advocacy Day, or to meet the Wilson family, please contact Amy Gall at (813) 870-4731.