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PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano will ask lawmakers for an even bigger government health-care program next year than the one they rejected this year.

Her proposal would have covered children in families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level — more than $60,000 a year for a family of four. The law now sets the cutoff at twice the poverty level. But funding to do that is not in the budget passed by House Republicans or the bipartisan Senate version of.

Napolitano said she already is putting together plans for next year to help cover more adults who are without insurance, as well as more children.

Her comments came as a national group urged Congress to approve continued funding for the expanded Kids Care program and pushed states to join in. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said if Arizona balks, the $1.17 billion the state could get in federal tax dollars during the next five years will go elsewhere.

Since the federal funding formula calls for states to put up $1 for each $3 in federal money, claiming the extra funds Pollack referenced would require more than $350 million extra in state funds over five years, or $70 million a year.

Napolitano sought just $2.2 million for half of the coming budget year. But her staffers acknowledged the cost would grow as word of the expanded program got out and more people joined.

"The Legislature had some problems with that," Napolitano conceded. But the governor said this year's fight left an impression — and a resolve to seek even more next year.

Napolitano did not provide specifics.

But House Majority Leader Tom Boone, R-Peoria, said any plan to expand government-subsidized health care is going to meet with resistance in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Boone said the solution to having perhaps 1 million uninsured Arizonans is less government involvement.

Republicans want to partially repeal laws that require all health insurance sold in Arizona to cover a list of ailments and treatments. Among those they want to eliminate are chiropractic care, contraceptives and mental-health coverage.

"It would be a lot less expensive," he said. "It would just be like a basic major-medical policy, which currently no insurers in the state of Arizona can offer."