(Corrects John Dingell's title in 10th paragraph.)

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Children's Defense Fund recently reported the story of 13-year-old Devante Johnson, whose life- saving treatment for kidney cancer was delayed for four months after he was mistakenly dropped from a state-run, federally subsidized low-income children's health plan.

Devante was lucky to survive long enough for his state representative to intervene and force the government to reinstate his coverage.

While Devante's case is a reminder of the moral imperative for universal health care in the U.S., it is also a reminder that we can't put the plight of our nation's 9 million uninsured children on hold while we wait for such a legislative remedy. Indeed, inaction would contravene what should be Congress's Hippocratic Oath of first doing no harm.

Because of a flaw in the decade-old State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), inaction might lead 1.3 million more children being denied coverage. Congress now has the opportunity not just to patch this hole but to fulfill the promise of SCHIP by expanding its coverage to the 6.8 million children who meet the low-income test but who aren't insured.

The program was one of the key achievements President Clinton exacted from Congress as part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement. It was designed to provide health care for as many as 5 million children in families with incomes too high for Medicaid, but too low to afford private coverage. The cost was estimated at $48 billion over 10 years.

Coverage for Kids

Rather than offer insurance directly to individuals, SCHIP provides federal grants to states and gives them the choice of starting their own programs, covering additional low-income children under pre-existing Medicaid programs, or some combination of the two.

While some states got off to a slow start in setting up their programs, SCHIP now covers 4.4 million low-income children, and it has helped millions more enroll in Medicaid.

Yet, the legislation creating the program didn't fully account for inflation in health-care costs and population growth. Without some adjustment, the amount of coverage that can be purchased will decline and states will start applying measures to limit enrollment.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service projects that under current law, cumulative shortfalls of $6 billion to $9 billion will force a reduction in SCHIP coverage from current levels so that by 2012 it will insure 1.3 million fewer children.

While the administration has failed to come forward with a fix for the health-inflation problem, Congress is thinking much bigger. A bipartisan set of legislators, including Representatives Rahm Emanuel, Jim Ramstad, Ray Lahood and John Dingell and Senator Hillary Clinton have offered two proposals. While their recommendations differ, both would seek to ensure that at least all 6.8 million low-income kids now eligible for SCHIP are reached.

Finding Savings

But fixing the current problems as well as seeking to reach all eligible children might cost as much as $50 billion over five years. Because the new Democratic congressional majority appears determined to pay for all new initiatives, the question facing them is where to find the off-setting savings?

One of the best places to look is at two of President Bush's least well-known tax cuts for upper-income Americans. The provisions would repeal limitations on how much top earners can reduce their taxes through the use of the personal exemption and certain itemized deductions.

As Robert Greenstein and Avina Aron-Dine of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have noted, these two tax cuts were to be applied in three steps, and so far only one has been implemented. While Aron-Dine and Greenstein would prefer repeal of these breaks, they point out that if Congress simply didn't implement the last two stages, it would save $13 billion over five years. That's enough to make sure 1.3 million SCHIP kids aren't dropped, and still cover additional children.

Better Idea

There is even a better idea. Congress could alter the income limits to protect the tax breaks for families making less than $250,000 a year, but repeal it for those earning more. This would free up about $29 billion in the next five years -- enough to both fill the existing gap and put up a major down payment for health care for all children who need help.

Sure it would be easy to take a pass at such incremental measures and wait until 2009 to see if a new president will be successful in passing universal health coverage.

But as Devante would tell you, neither the children nor the illnesses of America's uninsured young will wait while our leaders figure out how to end our national disgrace on health- care coverage.

(Gene Sperling, author of ``The Pro-Growth Progressive,'' was President Bill Clinton's top economic adviser. He is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Gene Sperling in Washington at gsperling@cfr.org.

Last Updated: February 23, 2007 11:37 EST