"President-elect Obama and Congress must make a greater commitment to investing in the health-care needs of all children as the health-care reform debate continues," she said, adding a plea to the Senate to act quickly and the admonition that investing in children strengthens the country's economic future by creating a heathy and productive work force.

About 135,000 kids in Utah have been covered by CHIP since it was first offered here 10 years ago. State agencies estimate that there are 70,000 children in Utah who still don't have insurance, and current enrollment in CHIP is just under 36,000.

State lawmakers have granted healthy funding boosts the past two years and recently removed the enrollment cap so that anyone who qualifies doesn't have to wait for an open enrollment period.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who co-authored the enabling CHIP legislation in 1997, said in a recent visit to Utah that he considers it to be "one of my most important legislative accomplishments."

The program has been praised by Republican legislative leaders and by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. as a government program that actually works as designed.

Contributing: Lee Davidson. E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com