President Bush has on two occasions vetoed widely supported bipartisan legislation that would have allowed millions of American children living without health insurance a way to get proper medical care. As we have said before, he has chosen ideology over reality.

The legislation would have expanded coverage for children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, the federal program states use to cover children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private health insurance.

The U.S. House is set to try, again, this week to override Bush's veto. It is imperative that Congress succeed.

Millions of American children who live without health insurance — kids who can't go to the doctor when they get sick — are depending on their elected representatives to do what is right. We hope our Arizona delegation will understand how critical it is to expand SCHIP coverage.

The SCHIP legislation would continue coverage for about 6 million kids now enrolled in SCHIP programs, and extend it to nearly 4 million more, by allocating $35 billion more over five years. This would allow states to increase the income limit to qualify and cover more kids in that limbo of their families earning too much, but not enough.

In Arizona, roughly 250,000 children do not have health coverage. Nationally, the figure is about 8 million children.

Common sense tells us that these figures will only increase as the economy worsens. Housing starts are down significantly, the housing slump has spread into related industries such as lending, construction and retail, and companies are laying off workers. About two-thirds of employers offered some kind of health benefits to their workers in 2006, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study. The link between having a job and health insurance is real.

"With job loss, they're going to lose health insurance," said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Southern Arizona Democrat, in an interview about SCHIP last week. "It's all tied together."

Giffords said that half of all Americans have their health insurance through their employer. Families lose much more than an income when mom or dad loses a job.

Bush and his Republican supporters — although significant backing for expanding SCHIP has come from Republicans who understand its necessity — contend that expanding SCHIP is a step toward federalized health care. The argument belies the economic reality many families face. Bush's proposal would result in kids being dropped from the rolls because, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it will take $14 billion over the next five years on top of existing funding to continue SCHIP coverage as it is today.

Concern about the economy is so great that the White House last week announced its stimulus package to help boost spending and spur the economy. Details must still be hashed out with Congress but it's at least an acknowledgement that families are hurting.

The understanding stops, however, when it bumps into ideology. Bush continues to say that the focus should be on getting uninsured kids into private coverage instead of government coverage. That may work in theory, but in reality families are being priced out of private coverage.

A recent study from the nonprofit Families USA organization found that 1.4 million Arizonans under 65 — those not eligible for Medicare — this year will pay more than 10 percent of their pre-tax income on medical bills. Of those, half are in families making $35,000 to $70,000 per year and about 80 percent have health insurance.

The study also found that premiums almost doubled from 2000 to 2007, from $6,300 to $12,000 and the average worker's share increased from $1,600 to $3,281.

Costs for services increased, too, by 64 percent from 2000 to a projected $6,600 in 2008.

Half of all bankruptcies are prompted in part, the study found, by inability to pay medical bills.

American children and their families need help. We call on our Arizona delegation to vote for children and help override the veto on SCHIP.