Letter: Moms need resources to raise children

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To the editor:

Having celebrated Mother’s Day this month, let us, as a society, make a Mother’s Day promise to every child around the world.

Every day, new moms around the globe make a promise to their newborns — they vow to protect and nurture them so they can live healthy, fulfilling lives. Mother’s Day is a celebration of the dedication and determination of moms everywhere to deliver on this promise. Let us, as a society, promise to do the same and to help them along this journey.

As we consider the struggles of our domestic neighbors, please also let us remember the needs of those across the planet and encourage our members of Congress to fight for a generation where we can put an end to preventable deaths everywhere.

There is currently much more need for assistance in our communities than actual assistance being given. It is extremely important to open up conversation and create educational opportunities for people to learn about area resources and others available. For example, needymeds.org is a free website available to individuals. When properly utilized, it can provide information on patient assistance programming, copay coupon cards and discount options for a wide variety of medication. It even provides links to medical crowdfunding resources available to normal, everyday people.

These things are extremely important. When we live in a time period where a MOMS Helpline receives more than 5,000 calls in its first year of operation, it is easy to state that we, as a society, need more. We need to know what groups can provide funding assistance.

We need to know what registries are available to log and evaluate data regarding disease exposure. We need more access to tools like GoodRx that can help people find the lowest prices and discounts available at pharmacies across the country, and we need better legislative policies to ensure programs like Medicare and Medicaid are helping as many people as possible.

More than 15,000 people will die needlessly today. While this is a drastic reduction from the number of preventable deaths experienced over the years, it is still far too many lives lost.

Let us, in concert with our elected officials, be the generation to not only end these preventable deaths but also create a sustainable system in which the inadequacies of the past never surpass the generosity of our world.

I ask you to learn about the proposed budgets cuts to assistance programming by our current administration and to help combat those cuts with scientific data, engaged conversation and a universal hope that we can do what’s right by one another in this ever-changing world.

Matthew Pope

Greenfield