With a swift move of a pen, President Barack Obama opened access to care for more than 4 million low-income children will receive health insurance that would have otherwise gone without affordable care.

Obama signed legislation Wednesday that gives a much-needed $32.8 billion into the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a federal and state program that has a national enrollment of about 7 million children living a little above, at or below the federal poverty level, the standard of which a person is considered poor.

"This is good," Obama said as he approached the desk to enact the legislation. "This is good."

He's right. This is a great move towards access of care for those who'd have few options otherwise. In Georgia, approximately 25 percent of the state’s 2.5 million children were considered impoverished in 2007. About one in nine Georgia children were uninsured.

These are not children of the so-called "welfare moms." More than 86 percent of these kids come from a family where at least one parent works, and more than half live in a home with both parents.

But of the state's needy children, only about 338,300 were enrolled in Georgia's SCHIP program PeachCare in 2007. The state spent a little less than $119,000 as their share of the program, and the federal government kicked in about $328,000.

Most every year, though, the Department of Public Health, the state agency that administers PeachCare, runs out of its alloted federal funds, spending most of their total allowance before even six months of the year has passed.

This year is no different. The state already runs dangerously low on funds. Not only are the funds that are there inadequate to cover the children already enrolled, but the state's demand for such a program will continue to increase. As unemployment rates skyrocketing along with the cost of health care, the people's need for programs like PeachCare and Medicaid will only grow.

With the enactment of this legislation, we have not only helped needy children, but have also moved a step closer to Obama's promise of universal health coverage for everyone.

"We fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have, to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children," the president said before the cheering audience. "Providing coverage to 11 million children is a downpayment on my commitment to cover every single American."