As pediatricians, when we treat children, we’re not just healing their injuries and illnesses. Far too often, we’re also trying to treat symptoms of a system that’s failing Hawaii’s families.

At our offices and in our hospitals, we see more than stomach aches and broken bones. We see the face of hunger, the suppressed pride of the unhoused, and the scars of missed opportunities. Through no fault of their parents and families, the children we care for were born into a society that simply doesn’t prioritize their needs and well-being.

Every day, we see children and families suffering unnecessarily from this broken system. An 18-month-old who recently lost multiple family member caregivers to COVID-19. Her mom is stressed and tired because she now has limited child care and is missing work to care for her two children. Children exposed to domestic violence because their mother feels she would not be able to work and care for them if she left. A 15-month-old with many missed doctor’s appointments, underimmunized and anemic from food insecurity.

Congress now has the chance of a generation to right these wrongs and give children — our country’s future — the resources they need to live healthy, productive lives. Transformative federal legislation called the Build Back Better Act would create today’s equivalent of a New Deal for children and families.

The bill would improve children’s access to health care, reduce childhood poverty by 40%, and make child care and pre-kindergarten (pre-K) affordable for all. It would strengthen Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, promoting health and well-being for pregnant people, babies, youth and parents. It also takes meaningful steps to combat the climate crisis so that our children have a future to look forward to.

Child hunger would be nearly eradicated by extending free school and summertime meals to more kids. Kids with full stomachs do better in school — you don’t need to be a doctor to see that this is common sense. Working families could get up to 12 weeks of paid family leave. Child care would be free for Hawaii parents earning less than $82,000. By 2025, no family would spend more than 7% of their income on child care. Pre-K programs would be free for all 3- and 4-year-olds. And schools would have funding to repair or replace their buildings, including removing lead from their drinking water.

Through the permanently expanded Child Tax Credit, most families could receive up to $300 per child, per month. These payments already started going out this July, on a temporary basis, and data show that Hawaii families are predominantly spending these funds on food, school expenses, and other essential bills. Since the payments started, the data also show that fewer Hawaii families have been going hungry.

Some of these provisions almost seem too good to be true, but we assure you that they’re real, would be fully paid for, and are well within our grasp, if the Congress can work together to support the Build Back Better package. A few representatives and senators are blocking the full legislative package, hoping to scale it back. As doctors who see firsthand the impacts of underinvesting in children, we want to make it clear: Our keiki need the support of the life-changing measures in the full bill.

As physicians, we can’t write a prescription for societal ills like poverty, the climate crisis and the high cost of living. But Congress can. We urge all of Hawaii’s members of Congress to come together to support the full package, too, for the sake of today’s keiki — and future generations to come.

Dr. Michael Ching is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Hawaii Chapter; Dr. Brooke Hallett is a pediatrician in Honolulu.