"Obviously this is outrageously unfortunate," said Judi Hilman, executive director of the Utah Health Policy Project, noting that the president's arguments against the CHIP bill — that it's the beginning of socialized medicine because middle-class children will be eligible — "are based on false premises. That's one thing that makes this so painful."

If not funded according to the compromise bill, Utah will have neither the flexibility to be cost-effective nor the ability to follow through with general initiatives proposed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to cover all uninsured Utahns, Hilman said.

May Romo, whose two young grandchildren have been periodically covered by CHIP, said she wishes TV networks would daily post the faces of uninsured children.

"As Americans, we kind of get apathetic. But once you start seeing the faces, it starts to move you," Romo said. "I think it's time for drastic measures.".

Another grandmother, Gerry Ann Marty of Salt Lake City, began calling Utah's congressional delegation and sending e-mails as soon as she heard about the president's veto. "I was so angry, and that was putting it mildly."

Marty said two of her grandsons, both diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, "would probably be dead today if not for CHIP and community health centers." The president, she said, doesn't understand what it's like for children who don't have even basic health-care coverage.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, issued a statement Wednesday praising CHIP and noting, "I believe that some have given the president bad advice on this matter, because I believe that supporting this bipartisan compromise to provide health coverage to low-income children is the morally right thing to do."

Karen Crompton, executive director of Voices for Utah Children, thought it was ironic that Bush vetoed the CHIP bill just two days after proclaiming Oct. 1 "Child Health Day." Children, Crompton said, "need health care, not proclamations."

CHIP, she said, has helped reduce the number of uninsured children by one-third.

The first of two rallies — "Rally for Our Children's Health Care" — is scheduled for today at 6 p.m. The sponsor, moveon.org, had not determined an exact downtown meeting site at press time.

The exact location also had not been determined for a "Grandmas on the Move for Children's Health" rally and press conference scheduled for Friday, Oct. 12, at 11 a.m. For more information about grandparent involvement, call the Utah Health Policy Project at 801-433-2299.

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Contributing: Suzanne Struglinski, Sara Israelsen, Associated Press

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E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com; jarvik@desnews.com