For the first time in American history, adults do not believe that our nation's children will have the opportunities they had to live happy, healthy and prosperous lives. When Americans no longer believe in the American Dream, it's time to return to basics. That means protecting the health, safety and well-being of all our children.

Last year began with great promise for children. President Obama was elected on a campaign pledge to ensure all children in this country have access to health coverage. Less than 100 days into his term, the president took important strides toward that goal, signing a law guaranteeing millions of children of working parents the right to see a doctor through the Children's Health Insurance Program. Everyone supported it -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents -- because no one believes that children should be sick, in pain or without preventive care.

The program is an extraordinary success, providing insurance to kids in working families who can't afford $10,000 premiums, let alone co-payments. And although the uninsured rate for adults continues to rise, it is declining in children, recently reaching a 20-year low.

However, some in the hospital industry and in Congress want to eliminate CHIP, sending many of the children it covers into the "health insurance exchanges." For those making a profit in health care, the hope is to make more money on kids through these new exchange plans. For others, the gamble is that moving millions of children into the exchange will subsidize coverage for other populations entering a new, untested system because children are cheaper to insure than adults.

They believe that the "greater good" warrants adults to benefit in the new system even if children are left worse off. Sadly, the debate over the health coverage for millions of children has little to do with what is best for them.

According to a comparison of CHIP to exchange plans proposed in the House and Senate health reform legislation, CHIP has the best, most affordable care. In fact, if children are moved into exchange plans, out-of-pocket costs would increase dramatically. The analysis, conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide for First Focus, finds that these out-of-pocket costs would increase by anywhere from 350 to 1,500 percent. Indeed, such a change is not in our children's best interest.

Congress was told much the same by the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, when he determined that Sen. John D. Rockefeller's amendment to protect CHIP from being terminated would reduce the number of uninsured children. As he wrote in his director's blog, "CBO expects that offering continuity of coverage for several million children in CHIP would keep some children insured who would not have been covered under the Chairman's mark; under the mark as it was originally offered, which would have eliminated CHIP, CBO anticipated that some of those children would be eligible for subsidized coverage in the exchanges but would not be enrolled in an exchange plan (owing at least in part to the higher premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs that they would typically face in such a plan)."

Our nation's young people have the right to see a doctor, be healthy and strive to fulfill their God-given potential. No one believes that children should be without vaccinations and annual check-ups just because their parents have lost their jobs or can't afford insurance despite working full-time. Health insurance for children of working parents needs to remain a stand-alone program just like Medicare for seniors, so that children don't end up worse off under health care reform.

Their parents could then buy insurance for themselves without having to pay excessive premiums for family coverage they simply can't afford. Children deserve the chance to grow, thrive and live long, healthy lives. Indeed, health care reform should at the very least ensure that no child is left worse off.

President Barack Obama made signing the CHIP legislation one of his first priorities last year. Congress must make sure he fulfills that commitment to "build on what works" by protecting CHIP for the millions of children who rely upon its coverage.

Karen Crompton is executive director of Voices for Utah Children and Bruce Lesley is president of the child-advocacy group First Focus i n Washington, D.C.