Across the country, health coverage for children looks vastly different than it did 20 years ago, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and other important steps leaders like Sherrod have taken to make access to quality healthcare a reality for millions of Americans—including the youngest members of our communities.

Sherrod has a long history of standing up for Ohio’s children and families. Take a look:

1998: Sherrod introduced the Children’s Hospitals Education And Research Act, which proposed the creation of the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program.

Since its creation, the CHGME program has provided Ohio children’s hospitals with hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to train pediatricians and pediatric specialists.

June 2004: Sherrod co-sponsored the Children’s Dental Health Improvement Act of 2004, which would have awarded grants to states to improve dental services to children enrolled in Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

January 2015: Sherrod joined a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce legislation to help coordinate care and improve health outcomes for children covered by Medicaid with medically complex conditions. Together with Ohio Senator Rob Portman, Sherrod reintroduced this legislation in 2017.

February 2015: Sherrod led the effort to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years. At the time, more than 130,000 Ohioans were benefiting from the program, along with 10 million children and pregnant women nationwide.

January 2016: Sherrod advocated for states to be measured and rewarded based on the quality of service in their Medicaid and CHIP programs. This legislation would have incentivized states to improve the quality of care for the more than 70 million—including children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities—covered through these programs.

October 2017: Sherrod again introduced legislation to extend CHIP for five years.

November 2017-January 2018: In response to Congress missing the deadline to extend funding for CHIP, Sherrod spoke out time and time again—including in a heated exchange with Sen. Orrin Hatch—about the millions of children relying on the program, and the urgent need for Congress to take action to renew it.