This year marks the 10-year anniversary of one of the most successful and treasured programs created by government — the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Since the inception of the program in 1997, more than 6 million children have received necessary health insurance, giving them the healthy start in life they deserve.

CHIP was born out of the healthcare debates in the early 1990s after efforts to provide comprehensive health insurance failed to take hold. Since that time, Congress, advocates, doctors and patients have accepted targeted approaches as a way to help cover the uninsured.

A decade later, the debate over how and whether to provide comprehensive healthcare coverage is once again heating up. Not since the 1990s have we had this kind of attention and momentum, and we cannot squander this opportunity to help expand health insurance coverage to more people.

The first step we can take in this process is to reauthorize CHIP, so that we can maintain coverage for those children currently enrolled and reach out to those who are eligible but not yet participating. Nearly 70 percent of the uninsured children in this country — 6.2 million children — are already eligible for Medicaid or CHIP and not receiving it. That is a travesty.

Providing children with reliable health insurance isn’t only about doctor’s visits, it’s also about peace of mind for American families. Access to affordable health insurance means that children get the immunizations and preventive care they need. It means that the common cold can be treated and prevented from turning into pneumonia. And it means that children get to spend more time in school rather than hospitals.

Sadly, almost 9 million children under the age of 19 still lack health insurance. We owe it to these children to finish the job we started a decade ago by guaranteeing that every child in America has access to affordable and comprehensive coverage.

Too many of our children still lack access to even basic medical care, a situation that is getting worse. Last year marked the first time since the creation of CHIP that the number of uninsured children actually increased — by 361,000. This means that, despite CHIP and other good programs, we have taken a step backward in terms of covering children. We cannot allow this trend to continue.

States must have the financial support necessary to reach the more than 6 million CHIP-eligible but unenrolled children. We know who these children are and we should be able to get them covered relatively quickly if the states know that the federal government will back them up with additional resources.

As states move forward with improvements and expansions to their programs, we must also ensure that they have the funding necessary to preserve coverage for the families already enrolled. Right now, many states face a sizeable federal funding shortfall. If we do not provide significant new federal resources for CHIP, at least 1.5 million children could lose their coverage over the next five years. This is not an acceptable outcome. We must preserve coverage for every child currently enrolled in CHIP so that we don’t add to the problem of the uninsured.

We should also make sure that the CHIP financing structure works without leaving gaping holes in coverage for some states. CHIP dollars should be better targeted so they go to the states that are actively covering children from year to year. Those states should not face the prospect of not knowing whether they will have the federal CHIP funds they need to sustain or expand coverage.

Meeting the needs of children — and all Americans — will require moving beyond a purely dollars-and-cents debate toward a discussion that reflects the kind of nation we want to become. I hope it is a nation that honors its moral obligation to all of its citizens, starting with our children. Our children need and deserve unequivocal commitment, so that they will have a fair shot at realizing their dreams and propelling our nation forward.

Rockefeller is a member of the Finance and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees and chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee.