A 7-year-old cancer survivor from Tampa and his parents traveled to Capitol Hill this week to advocate for protecting children’s health coverage, as part of a national push by hospital leaders and families to strengthen Medicaid funding.
Mikey Hartnett was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, at age 3 and underwent treatment at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, including multiple rounds of chemotherapy and proton beam radiation at the University of Florida’s Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville. His tumor had spread beyond its origin and required a complex and aggressive treatment plan. As part of the Children’s Hospital Association’s annual Family Advocacy Days (June 3-5), Mikey and his parents held one-on-one meetings with U.S. Representatives Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, and Kathy Castor, along with staff from the offices of Senator Ashley Moody and Representatives Laurel Lee and Anna Paulina Luna.
The family and St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital focused their advocacy on championing policies that protect Medicaid funding while expanding access to advanced cancer care closer to home. Currently, Florida families requiring proton therapy must travel to Jacksonville; BayCare plans to open a new state-of-the-art proton therapy center on the St. Joseph’s Hospital campus in Tampa Bay, positioning it as one of the first institutions worldwide to offer this advanced technology. According to BayCare Government Relations Director Jason Rodriguez, the Hartnetts’ participation demonstrates “why family voices must be at the center of health care policy discussions” as lawmakers consider legislation directly affecting families.
Family Advocacy Day brings together patients and parents from 60 children’s hospitals across the nation, urging lawmakers to protect children’s care, support pediatric healthcare providers, and uphold the value that every child deserves a healthy future. St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital is nationally recognized for excellence in specialized pediatric care and is one of only 55 Level I Children’s Surgery Centers in the United States, according to the American College of Surgeons.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://nynewsly.com/st-josephs-childrens-hospital-cancer-survivor-advocates-for-childrens-health-care-on-capitol-hill/34252/