It’s through the first round, State Senator Jeff Smith’s (D-St. Louis) measure that would increase access to early childhood programs at licensed child care facilities.

Smith’s legislation creating the Missouri Preschool Plus Grant Program, a pilot program within the Missouri Preschool Project, has gotten through its first hurdle on its way to become law.

This measure would benefit some of the state’s most stressed schools, said Smith’s office.

“These are critical years in a child’s life,” said Sen. Smith in a recent press release. “More neurological development occurs by the age of 4 than in the rest of a person’s life – and impoverished children are at great risk of not receiving the early brain stimulation that can never be recaptured. This bill will help our most vulnerable kids whose families could not otherwise access early childhood education.

Senate Bill 726 would create a five-star rating system, helping parents pick a child care center. About 1,250 children whose family income falls below 130 percent of the poverty level and live in school districts not accredited by the state Board of Education.

Districts that would benefit include St. Louis Public Schools in St. Louis City and Riverview Gardens and Wellston in St. Louis County.

The measure would also help the Wyaconda district in northeast Missouri.

The grant program, if created, would target children who are one to two years from starting kindergarten. It would be administered by Department of Elementary and Secondary Education along with the Coordinating Board of Early Childhood.

Children of active duty military parents would be given preference and at least 50 percent of the enrollment must be offered through non-sectarian community-based organizations.

Also, all learning centers participating in the program must adhere to current early childhood standards and must keep records of short-term and long-term data to measure the project’s success.

The grants will be available for three years and are renewable.

Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-St. Louis) today blasted House Republicans as they once again failed to join with the Democratic majority to override President Bush’s veto of the expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The effort failed by just 15 votes.

“Today, President Bush and House Republicans stood between 3.8 million additional children who would be covered by SCHIP and the health care they need.,” said Congressman Clay. “Over 56,000 children of hardworking Missouri families will remain uninsured because the President and the Republican minority continue to refuse to cover them. That is indefensible, especially when the economy is teetering on the brink of a recession. One of the most irresponsible things we could do is to leave millions of children uninsured as their parents struggle with foreclosures, layoffs, and higher prices for gas, utilities and groceries. As a parent, I want every child in this country to grow up healthy, with insurance coverage that helps keep them well. There is no excuse for sustaining this veto, and we continue the struggle to cover every child in this nation.”

The legislation vetoed by the President provided a $35 billion expansion of the SCHIP program which would have provided health care coverage to 10 million American children. The existing SCHIP program was extended last December until March 2009. But without this legislation, 3.8 million additional low-income children of working families will not be covered under the program. In addition, state budget shortfalls and administrative rules from President Bush put children who are covered now in jeopardy of losing health care.

State Senator Harry Kennedy (D-St. Louis) has been named to the Joint Committee on MO HealthNet.

From the press release:

Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons (R-Kirkwood) recently appointed Sen. Kennedy to this bipartisan, bicameral committee to oversee the new state healthcare program adopted by the General Assembly last year.

The Joint Committee on MO HealthNet will study the resources needed to continue improvements to the MO HealthNet program, which replaces the state Medicaid system. The committee was established in Senate Bill 577, approved by the General Assembly in 2007, as part of a wide-ranging effort to improve the delivery of healthcare services to the citizens of Missouri.

“There are a lot of good things included in SB 577 to meet the healthcare needs of Missourians who struggle to maintain healthy lives,” Sen. Kennedy said. “I want to make sure the state continues to provide the resources necessary to improve and expand MO HealthNet so that all citizens can receive quality healthcare. There are still too many Missourians who must choose between putting food on the table or getting the healthcare they need.”

“MO HealthNet is a start in addressing some of the problems in our healthcare system, but we can’t rest on our laurels and say we’ve fixed those problems by passing SB 577,” said Kennedy.

“We’ll have to continue to make changes to the system to ensure that all Missourians have access to quality healthcare services. I’m glad I’ll be in a position to recommend some of those needed improvements as a member of the Joint Committee on MO HealthNet.”

Three organizations – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Community Health-in-Partnership Services and Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club – are teaming up to offer free flu shots to anyone over six months old.

The shots will be given this Saturday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Herbert Hoover Boys and GIrls Club at 2901 N. Grand.

Anyone under nine years old who gets the shot will need to visit a doctor next month to receive a follow-up vaccination.

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Yesterday, members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rallied outside of the Children’s Hospital in the Central West End. SEIU members were joined by hospital staffers, community and religious leaders in their effort to convince Missouri’s Congressional delegation to overturn President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP program.

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MoveOn.org’s SCHIP Rally

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About 30 demonstrators, ranging from children to senior citizens, held signs outside of Senator Kit Bond’s office in Clayton yesterday afternoon calling for reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP). The group hoped Bond, who voted in favor of the bill, would encourage Missouri’s other Republican representatives in the Congress to change their minds and vote in favor of SCHIP.

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Governor Matt Blunt’s re-election campaign has taken issue with Attorney General Jay Nixon’s characterization of the Republican governor as being in support of President George W. Bush’s veto yesterday of the reauthorization of a program that provides health care for millions of children.

John Hancock, spokesman for Missourians for Matt Blunt, says the governor fully supports the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and wants Congress and the White House to work out their differences as soon as possible.

“This another area where Jay Nixon’s only solution is a big tax increase,” said Hancock.

“Governor Blunt has said repeatedly that he strongly supports reauthorizing SCHIP. He has said that the Congress and the President should work together to reauthorize the program without the tax increase that Nixon is endorsing.”

The Nixon campaign released a statement yesterday saying Blunt opposes the program which could potentially reinstate health care for thousands of Missouri children.

“We now have more than 127,000 children in our state without insurance. That is unacceptable,” said Nixon in the statement. “But instead of supporting a program which could bring coverage to thousands of those children, Matt Blunt is touting a health care plan that ignores them completely.”

Nixon also noted that, as a percentage of the population, Missouri has kicked more people off SCHIP than any other state from June 2005 to June 2006.

“Following Blunt’s massive health care cuts in 2005, there are now more than 127,000 Missouri children without health insurance,” said the Nixon campaign.

The web-based political action committee MoveOn.org will host a demonstration tomorrow at 4:00pm outside of Senator Kit Bond’s office at the corner of Hanley and Bonhomme.

MoveOn is organizing similar demonstrations outside of several Republican Senators’ offices across the country. The group hopes to encourage the Senators to override President George W. Bush’s veto of a children’s health care bill.

MoveOn says they need 15 Republicans to break from the President to override the veto.

UPDATE: The Washington Post has posted this breakdown of the House vote for the bill. All 197 Republicans that voted did so against the bill. 222 of the 223 Democrats who voted supported the bill. Heath Shuler of North Carolina was the Democrat’s sole dissenter.

According to the breakdown of the Senate vote, Kit Bond was one of the 18 Republicans who voted in favor of the bill.

Senator Claire McCaskill wants to make drug companies’ contributions to doctors public. McCaskill said today that she will introduce a bill next month requiring drug companies to list all gifts, promotional items, money and drug samples given to doctors online.

The information would be listed on a national drug registry website. Patients could use this website to find out if their doctor has received gifts from drug manufacturers.

McCaskill says gifts can lead to preferential prescriptions from doctors, and she hopes the drug registry website will cut down on this practice.

McCaskill made the announcement today at a meeting with St. Louis members of the American Medical Student Association at Washington University.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was in town yesterday to discuss the new Missouri initiative of his Center for Health Transformation, his DC-based think tank.

The focus of the luncheon at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel was how the state fits into the Center’s vision of a “21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money.”

Julie Eckstein, a former director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, is leading Gingrich’s Missouri effort, which will have an office at Westport Plaza.

CHT has offices in DC, Atlanta and now St. Louis.