“You only get one chance to grow up healthy, and kids shouldn’t go without health care just because their parents can’t afford coverage,” said Ruby Simon, a 13-year-old who spoke at the multi-generational AFL-CIO children’s health event at the U.S. Capitol. (Click here to watch the video.)

And that’s exactly what the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will do: give millions of uninsured children access to quality medical care—instead of having parents take their sick children to the nearest emergency room.

One thing stands in the way: Bush’s veto.

“If Congress continues to insist upon expanding health care through the SCHIP program,” President Bush said recently, “I’ll veto the bill.” To avoid any confusion, his adviser made it even clearer: “There is no question that the president would veto it.”

Click here to neutralize the Bush veto threat.

Bush seems to think everyone has “access to health care in America.” “After all,” he said, “you just go to an emergency room.”

The facts tell a different story.

In 2006, the latest year for which data is available, the number of uninsured children rose by 7.6 percent—the second consecutive year the number of children without health care increased. (To see the percentage of children without health insurance in your state, click here.)

SCHIP works. Since it began in 1997, the children’s health program has reduced the number of uninsured children by one-third—but those gains are being erased by the decline in private, employer-sponsored benefits.

A Bush veto would take us backward in the fight for secure, high-quality health care for all.

We can’t let this happen.

Tell at least nine of your friends about the petition for children’s health care.

With your help, we can counteract the Bush veto and make sure millions more of our children and grandchildren have access to good medical care.

Sincerely,

Working America, AFL-CIO

P.S. For more information on the AFL-CIO’s campaign for secure, high-quality health care for all, click here.