|
We have gathered together as parents, primarily mothers, within this small non-profit organization known as Mothers’ Support Network, to educate ourselves about how to provide care and guidance to our children while respecting our beliefs and working to better the world for the future of our families.
Our huge task encompasses many issues of both grand and tiny proportions and we each approach it with individual foci and levels of energy. Where we each focus our energy depends on many things, not the least of which is our understanding of, and education about, any given topic.
We make choices about where we will be active based on what we experience and where we place importance. Our interests and passions are diverse. Within our community there is therefore available a plethora of subjects about which we can all become educated and more aware. While we are wrapped up in our day to day life it is often difficult to see the bigger picture, these larger—community, state, country, global—issues are happening right along side of us and assisting or hindering the lives we try to create for our families and our communities.
Immerse yourself in the idea of a “Mothers’ Movement.” Read Ann Crittenden, Adrienne Rich, Naomi Wolf, Judith Stadtman Tucker, There is not a single issue more important than health care reform. |
|
Introduction & Background |
|
Why should mothers learn about health care?
Because we are concerned about budget and personal/family finance:
“The annual cost of health insurance for a California family of four is now equivalent to 75 percent of the annual earnings of a fully-employed minimum wage worker. This is one more indicator that the cost of health insurance is prohibitively expensive for many employers and workers” (Ruth, http://www.amsa.org/).
“I think we pay way too much- $1000 per month for three people!” writes one Mothers' Support Network member, In addition to that premium, she pays for alternative medicine.
Because we want freedom to make decisions regarding our careers:
Parents often base their career and child care decisions on the availability and finances around health care insurance rather than what would be the best for their families.
“I have considered working just to get benefits for our family,” writes another Mothers' Support Network member.
Because we are concerned about justice and the health of all:
1 in 4 women are dependents on someone with job-based insurance (typically a spouse) and these women are twice as likely to lose their insurance through death of the primary insurer, divorce, retirement or unemployment.
More than 20 million working Americans lack health care coverage.
“We are parents and we worry. That's what we do. We worry whether our child's cold will turn into an ear infection. We worry whether it's a mosquito bite or a serious allergy. We worry if our child's inability to pay attention in class is just a "phase" or a symptom of an undiagnosed learning disability. And, too often, we worry about whether our insurance will pay for the doctor's visit to diagnose and cure the problem.
We care about our children and do whatever we can to protect them and keep them healthy. But it isn't easy. There are a host of influences that work against sound lifestyles and good health, from junk food in our schools to a media culture that bombards them with unhealthy messages. And even if we work hard and successfully to reduce the power of these influences, the fact is, kids get sick. Sometimes they contract diseases and become very ill.
We need a system that provides health care for all our children, rich or poor, rural or urban. But it will not happen just by wishing it to be so. As parents, we have the power to ensure that our nation's health care system meets the physical - as well as emotional - needs of every American child. We need to exercise that power. And now.” –Parent’s Action for Children
Websites for more information include:
|
|
“If we mothers agree that things aren’t the way we’d like them to be, we owe it to our kids to make a change” – Enola Aird
|
|
“What are we as mothers if we cannot work to make the world just a little bit better of a place for our children and their children after them to grow up in?” -Susan Zeman, MSN member |
|
“Life on the planet is born of woman”.– Adrienne Rich |