This is National Cover the Uninsured Week, a time to raise awareness about the 9 million American children and 38 million adults who don't have access to affordable health insurance. In Texas, we have 1.5 million of the 9 million children, the worst rate of uninsured in the nation. But we can celebrate the fact that, compared with August 2007, 109,000 more Texas children have health coverage. That's more than all the children in Midland, Abilene and San Angelo combined.

This big step in the right direction is the result of the Legislature which, with support from our business community, families, advocates and volunteers, strengthened Children's Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program during the past legislative session. Because of these program improvements, 127,000 more children are expected to become enrolled as the year progresses.

Healthy, educated children become self-sustaining adults. When children have access to preventive health care, they are better able to learn, their parents miss less work to care for them, and local taxes go down because there is less reliance on expensive emergency rooms. That's why the chambers of commerce of the eight largest Texas cities endorsed CHIP restoration during the past legislative session. Texas businesses know that crisis care is far more costly than preventive care. Every Texan wins when the state's children get the care they need, when they need it.

Now is the time to build on the legislative successes and work to enroll all children who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. It is also a time to explore solutions that would allow all parents the option to purchase affordable health coverage for their children.

This week, a coalition of business leaders, policymakers, advocates and families across Texas announced a new initiative to provide Texas kids with access to affordable, comprehensive health care.

The campaign has two goals: first, to enroll all children who are currently eligible for CHIP and Medicaid but are not enrolled, and secondly, to design an affordable sliding scale program for children in families who earn too little for private insurance but too much for current CHIP guidelines.

The immediate goal is to enroll the estimated 800,000 children who are now qualified but not enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid. There are two roadblocks. First, the Health and Human Services Commission must expand its work force and upgrade its systems. Second, the Legislature can greatly reduce the state's backlog, cut operational costs and reduce the often disastrous disqualification of qualified kids in need of care by simply extending Medicaid to annual renewal from the current six months.

As concerned Texans, we also have a role: to enlist our local organizations to enroll kids by exploring pilot programs that let children enroll at school. Many parents of eligible children either don't know about CHIP or Medicaid or are intimidated by a complicated enrollment process. Our schools are a great potential ally in this effort.

The second goal is to get kids covered by exploring options that would allow more parents to buy affordable health insurance for their children. Many families work to pull themselves up, only to get a small raise above the current CHIP guidelines and find that they lose their kids' affordable health insurance. Other families above CHIP guidelines join the ranks of the uninsured because static wages cannot keep up with rapidly increasing private sector insurance premiums. Nearly 500,000 Texas kids are now caught in this gap.

I am proud to be a part of this campaign and urge all Texans to build on our success and help Texas kids get access to affordable health coverage. For more information, visit www.texaskidswin.org.

Bentsen is the co-founder of a Texas-based international oil and gas company and the health chairman of the Children's Defense Fund Texas Advisory Board.