WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are working to stop the Bush administration from enforcing rigid new standards for a children's health insurance program that critics say could seriously impede California's efforts to provide coverage for more families.

New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone, who chairs a House subcommittee on health, filed legislation this week that would nullify the new standards and prohibit the administration from enacting them.

Two California congresswomen — Lois Capps of Santa Barbara and Hilda Solis of El Monte — joined Pallone in sponsoring the legislation.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer also have written a letter to President Bush asking him to withdraw the rules, which they say would set Medicaid and state health programs back by 40 years.

The rules would reduce the number of children who receive healthcare, install thresholds that are impossible for the states to meet and "impose a one-size-fits-all solution to a dynamic and complex problem," the governors said.

At issue are changes to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is subsidized by the federal government. The program covers 6 million children nationwide, including nearly 800,000 in California and 18,000 in Ventura County.

The Bush administration has been battling with Congress and the states over the cost of the program, which will expire on Sept. 30 unless lawmakers reauthorize it.

Picking on our children'

In August, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put states on notice that it has adopted new standards that would make it harder for states to expand the program. The changes are an effort to prevent parents who already have coverage in the private market from enrolling their children in the federal program.

But critics have soundly condemned the new regulations and said the administration is playing a dangerous game with the health and well-being of children across the country.

Capps accused the president of "picking on our children to score cheap political points."

"Denying vital healthcare to some of the most vulnerable in our society — kids and pregnant women — is such a bad idea that even fellow Republicans are condemning his actions and urging him to reconsider," she said.

The administration already has invoked the rules to deny New York's request to cover children in families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level — a move that, had it been approved, could have provided health coverage to an additional 70,000 children in the state.

Effort to expand coverage

In California, where the program is known as Healthy Families, officials also are looking to open up coverage to more children.

Currently, California families with an income of 250 percent of the federal poverty level — or $51,625 for a family of four — qualify for the program. Schwarzenegger wants to enroll families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $62,000 for a family of four.

Under the new federal standards, however, states that want to enroll families earning more than 250 percent of the poverty level would have to make sure the child has been uninsured for at least one year.

In addition, states looking to expand eligibility for the program would have to prove that at least 95 percent of children from families making less than 200 percent of the poverty level are already enrolled in the program or Medicaid — a standard no state has been able to meet.

The new rules would make it virtually impossible for California to expand the program, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy coalition.

"The Bush administration is trying to take us backwards, and that is problematic," Wright said.

Funding for the program is also a major concern, Wright said, because California hasn't gotten enough money in recent years to cover the costs of everyone insured under the program.

Even if funding remains at current levels, the state would have to remove 250,000 children from the program because it doesn't have the money to continue their coverage, Wright said.

The House and Senate have passed separate bills to reauthorize the insurance program and to provide additional funding.

Negotiators for the two chambers said this week they have struck a compromise that would roll back some of the new regulations and provide $60 billion for the program over the next five years — a $35 billion increase over the current level of spending.

Bush, who had wanted to increase the current spending by just $5 billion, threatened Wednesday to veto the package.