Stealth Agenda in Health-Care Bill: Early Childhood Home Visitation

Lindsey Burke / July 17, 2009

The massive 1,018-page health care bill introduced by House Democrats is full of bad policy ideas, and they’re not all even about health care. One troublesome provision calls for a home visitation program that would bring state workers into the homes of young families to improve “the well-being, health, and development of children.”

Lawmakers have essentially inserted the “Education Begins at Home Act” – which was introduced in 2008 and again this year by Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) – into the health care bill under the home visitation section. Despite the fact that as a stand-alone bill the Education Begins at Home Act failed to gain traction last year, lawmakers intent on increasing the federal role in education into the preschool years have inserted the language into the mammoth health care bill. (more…)