On Monday, Danielle Highley of Deer Lodge, Montana, and her mother flew over 2,200 miles to Washington, D.C. with Montana Sen. Steve Daines to attend today’s State of the Union address. Sen. Daines invited Dani, age 9, and her mother, Glory, to join him after he told Dani’s story on the floor of the U.S. Senate earlier this month, urging his colleagues to support long-term CHIP funding.
CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, was created over two decades ago with overwhelming bipartisan support. The program insures vital health care for nearly 9 million children across the country. In September 2017, Congress allowed funding to expire, and the program was in danger of ending coverage for those children. Last week, Congress extended funding to CHIP for six years.
Dani was diagnosed withpolyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritisat 18 months old and lost her ability to walk. She started taking injections that helped tremendously – but the cost of this treatment was enormous. Thankfully, Dani qualified for CHIP, and has gotten the treatment she so desperately needed. When funding expired last fall, Dani’s mother was nervous … and rightfully so. Dani’s doctor wrote to Sen. Daines when she heard he would be speaking about CHIP to other members of Congress. She told their story and how CHIP’s life-altering treatment has made such an amazing difference in their lives.
在华盛顿，达尼和她的妈妈一直在观光，毫无疑问，他们很兴奋能出席今晚的国情咨文演讲。我们很高兴他们能有这样不可思议的经历。
Dani and her mom are enthusiastically involved with the Arthritis Foundation through JA camps and our Advocate program. OurAdvocates and Ambassadorshelp improve the lives of the 54.5 million adults and 300,000 children in America living with arthritis by telling their personal stories –please consider joining us in the fight against arthritis.
Related Resources:
- Advocate for Arthritis
- About Our Advocate Program
- Our Federal Policy Priorities
- Your Coverage, Your Care Toolkit