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SCHIP is a lifeline for 6 million children whose parents cannot obtain family coverage at work.

SCHIP provides parents with the choice of affordable health coverage so that their children have regular pediatricians and get preventative treatment that keeps kids out of emergency rooms.

SCHIP and the broader Medicaid program are important pieces of our health care infrastructure in every community in the United States. These federal-state partnerships are success stories. They help keep families and communities healthy, while saving money from costly emergency room visits for the uninsured.

This year Congress will need to decide fully fund the SCHIP program.  Already 17 states have run short on federal SCHIP monies and face the nightmare of cutting children off of insurance.

America is at a crossroads on children's health. This year provides an opportunity to move forward toward the historic goal of covering all children by expanding SCHIP and strengthening the Medicaid program. Under-funding SCHIP or cutting Medicaid to keep SCHIP going would set back hard-won progress and leave millions of children without coverage.

PICO, a national network of one thousand religious congregations and schools in 150 cities and 18 states, has been working on a step-by-step campaign to expand access to health care to the uninsured. PICO federations in California have helped develop county-level programs to cover all children in half the counties in California.

PICO and its 53 affiliated federations are working to make sure than parents, pediatricians, educators, and religious leaders know what is at stake in the debate over SCHIP. As we work to protect SCHIP and Medicaid, we are advancing a national campaign to cover all children.

PICO's Road Map for Covering all Children as part of SCHIP reauthorization includes enough funding to protect children now enrolled, without putting Medicaid at-risk; incentives for states to expand eligibility and reach out to eligible children; support for innovative outreach programs; policies that cut red tape to increase enrolment among eligible children; and incentives to increase workplace coverage.

PICO federations are working together on children's health because we want all parents to be able to raise healthy children, which includes having access to affordable health coverage.

For more information visit the SCHIP Reauthorization Resource Center of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families