Virginia Coalition for Children's Health Did you know that there was a coalition of organizations concerned with children's health issues in Virginia? In 1997, over 100 organizations came together to form the Virginia Coalition for Children's Health (The Coalition) to ensure that Virginia take full advantage of a new federal initiative to provide health insurance programs for the uninsured children of lower income working families.		Contact info Our services Supporting organizations Virginia Coalition for Children's Health
	The Coalition worked tirelessly during the 1998 General Assembly Session to ensure that Virginia adopt a program that provided the best package of benefits for the greatest possible number of uninsured children. Recognizing that legislation alone will not ensure that children receive the health care, The Coalition also launched the statewide outreach initiative, SignUpNow. At the initiation of the Governor, the 2000 Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that renamed and significantly revamped the existing CMSIP program into the FAMIS plan. The Coalition played a key role in passage of this legislation. Working closely with the patrons, The Coalition helped to amend the original proposal to incorporate several child/consumer protections, to ensure adoption of the final bill, and to secure additional funding for the program. The Coalition successfully completed its work at the 2002 legislative session which resulted in several important changes to the Medicaid and FAMIS programs many of which took affect in September 2002. During the 2003, 2004 and 2005 General Assembly Sessions, the 58 member Coalition effectively advocated for improvements to Virginia's health insurance programs for children. The Virginia Coalition for Children's Health had another successful year in 2006 helping to increase eligibility in FAMIS MOMS to 166% of FPL, expand Family Planning Services availability to all women under 133% of poverty (not just those who had a Medicaid covered birth), and increase reimbursement for pediatric services by 5% in both years of the biennium. At the 2007 General Assembly Session, the Coalition helped to pass budget language increasing the FAMIS MOMS income guidelines to 185%FPL. In 2010, the Coalition merged with the Healthcare for All Virginians Coalition, a broad-based coalition of health care providers, consumers, insurers, and businesses dedicated to creating and advocating for accessible and affordable quality health care for all Virginians. Over 60 Virginia organizations support the HAV Coalition.