While much of our nation’s attention has been focused on what’s happening around the world, something remarkable has been taking place right here at home. Unlikely partners and leaders in government, the health care sector and the business community are stepping forward together to propose new ways of fixing what’s broken with our health care system. Thanks to the efforts of diverse and influential organizations, and government leaders from Connecticut to California, a growing number of approaches and solutions are on the table; now it’s up to the politicians and those talking about it agreeing to actually do something about it.

If any one issue dramatizes our broken health care system, it is the persistently growing numbers of adults and children without health insurance coverage.

I believe that all Americans should have health insurance coverage and are heartened to see so many important organizations and individuals working to address this critical need. I also recognize that our society is judged by how it cares for our most vulnerable – our children, our elderly, the disabled and the dispossessed. Currently a whopping 8 million children are uninsured – that’s equal to the number of first and second graders in the nation’s public schools. Children need health coverage to learn, grow up healthy and achieve their full potential. The country's most successful effort to cover kids, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), is in danger unless Congress and the President act decisively this year. 

A decade ago, another Congress showed tremendous foresight in authorizing state coverage programs as a much-needed safety net for children. This is one of America's great success stories about taking care of our own. SCHIP covers kids from families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid and too low to afford private insurance. Thanks to Medicaid and SCHIP, the percentage of uninsured kids has declined 20% over the past decade. 

With a decade of SCHIP experience under our belts, we now know how to cover all kids in America. We also know that children who are insured are three times more likely to have a regular doctor or other provider than uninsured kids, are less likely to suffer unmet health needs and are more likely to receive well-child care and see a doctor during the year.

Without a renewed commitment and adequate funding for programs that promote kids’ coverage, like SCHIP, the health and future of millions of children is in jeopardy. When kids don’t have health insurance coverage, they don’t receive timely immunizations or see a doctor when they are sick, and they end up with conditions that could have been treated more affordably and effectively if caught sooner.

As our nation’s leaders work to address the broader problems confronting our health care system, and our nation, they should also be working to ensure that our children have coverage.

At a time when people are looking for competent, accountable government free of partisanship and political posturing, these programs have broad support and are proven to work. They benefit millions of hard-working families, have the support of voting Americans, and enjoy a long history of bipartisan support. While covering children isn’t the solution to the coverage crisis, it is an important first step. The key to covering all Americans is for our leaders to do what leaders are elected to do – lead.