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Wrangling over political philosophy could leave 6.6 million low-income children who depend on the State Children's Health Insurance Program without health coverage if lawmakers cannot agree and reauthorize the bill before it expires Sept. 30.

The health and well-being of America's children should not be used as a football in an ideological drive to privatize medical insurance. The decade-old federal program, dubbed SCHIP, now costs $5 billion a year and covers kids whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid — but not enough to buy private health insurance coverage.

A bipartisan bill approved 17-4 earlier this month by the Senate Finance Committee— with Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl voting against it — would continue the baseline payments of $25 billion over five years and add $35 billion to maintain health care for the 6.6 million kids now on SCHIP and expand coverage to another 3.2 million low-income kids who don't have medical coverage for another five years.

The increase would be funded by increases in the cigarette tax by 61 cents a pack, to $1.

Under the state-federal partnership, the federal government pays for about 70 percent of SCHIP.

President George W. Bush said he will veto the legislation. "My concern is that when you expand eligibility, people eligible for the program, you're really beginning to open up the avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government," he told the Washington Post.

This philosophical argument rings hollow. Census data show that, adjusted for undercounts, 8 million American children were without health insurance on any given day in 2004, according to a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The Bush administration released figures in June that indicate 4.9 million children were without health insurance for an entire year. But whether it's 8 million or 4.9 million, the fact remains: American children are going without health care because their parents can't afford it.

Bush said he will veto any plan to spend more than $5 billion over five years. The Congressional Budget Office says it would take $14 billion to continue existing coverage, and Gov. Janet Napolitano says Bush's plan would effectively eliminate coverage for thousands of Arizona children.

According to Kyl's Web site, more than 60 percent of small firms in Arizona offer employee health insurance coverage.

An average family premium of $11,480 is more than a quarter of the yearly income for a family of four that makes twice the poverty level, or about $41,000. Families also find that private coverage they may be able to afford isn't broad enough and medical needs go unmet. Under the Senate bill, states could expand SCHIP to cover families up to 300 percent of the federal poverty line.

Research has shown, according to the Kaiser study, that few low-income families substitute private insurance for government coverage. The number could go up if the SCHIP qualifying income limits are increased, but public coverage is often better than what expensive private insurance policies offer.

It is unconscionable to allow SCHIP to expire and deprive any child who needs health insurance based on an ideological theory that ignores the economic realities of American life.