One evening last year, Dina Abdic, a 40-year-old real estate agent and mother of two, made a mental tally of her family's medical bills.

Paying $670 a month for health insurance seemed reasonable. But the plan carried a $7,000 deductible and her checkbook bore witness to the fine print: $90 for a drug refill, $300 for a checkup, and $600 to treat a minor urinary tract infection.

"You dig into it and you realize this isn't covered and that's not covered and you ask yourself, 'Can we afford this?' " said the Cottonwood Heights woman, who canceled the policy and joined Utah's 302,400 uninsured.

As Congress grapples with a massive overhaul of the nation's health care system, state officials published new data Wednesday showing Utah's uninsured rate held steady in 2009 at 10.8 percent, compared with 10.7 percent in 2008 and 10.6 percent in 2007.

The numbers pleased, and surprised, Utah Health Department chief David Sundwall, who credited efforts to enroll more children in the Children's Health Insurance Program, (CHIP) funded with state and federal dollars.

Even as other cash-strapped states, such as Arizona and California, mulled closing their CHIP programs, Utah's remained open through 2009. As a result, 21,200 fewer Utah children -- 27.9 percent -- (18 years old and under) went without health coverage last year.

"Our leaders should be commended. They realized this is not the place to cut in tough times," said Korey Capozza, health policy analyst at Voices for Utah Children.

But there's a downside to the health department's data: a 10.4 percent increase in the ranks of uninsured Utah adults.

Pointing to that -- and the need to preserve safety net programs like CHIP by keeping costs in check -- a group of 933 Utah health professionals spoke out Wednesday in favor of federal health reform.

The recession has cast too many Utahns into the ranks of the uninsured, and those who have managed to keep their jobs and health coverage are paying more and getting less, said Scott Poppen, an internal medicine doctor at Alta View Hospital and organizer of a "White Coats" campaign urging Utah Congressman Jim Matheson to vote for reform.

"Our patients need it, our profession demands it and our country cannot continue to thrive without it," said Poppen at a news conference, flanked by doctors, nurses and mental health providers.

While acknowledging that the competing reform bills before Congress are imperfect, Poppen and others say they are the best thing going.

State reform is too slow, and Utah's own fix -- an online marketplace for private health insurers -- has done nothing to curb waste, cover the uninsured or improve medical care, said Kim Bateman, a vice president at HealthInsight, a local nonprofit devoted to streamlining Medicare.

"My hat's off to Matheson for insisting on more cost controls, but there's some of that in the reforms," Bateman said. "Let's not throw baby out with the bath water."

With pressure mounting for Congress to act, pro-reform groups have targeted Matheson as one of the few Democratic holdouts. Among them are the Utah Citizens' Council of 15 high-profile seniors, including LDS author Emma Lou Thayne, former University of Utah President Chase Peterson and former Utah Gov. Olene Walker.

Uninsured Utahns greet all the activity as a good sign.

"There just needs to be another option for people. I understand why people are afraid of change, but those people are employed," said Tim Nelson, who lost his coverage in August when the motorcycle shop where he had worked for three years as service manager closed.

Though young and healthy, the 32-year-old is living off unemployment and can't afford even a modest $200 monthly premium.

He rations his asthma medication or gets free samples from his doctor, and has stopped racing motocross. "If I get seriously hurt, I'm screwed," Nelson said.

It's a gamble that more Americans are making as rising premiums eat into household incomes.

Chris Berrett lost access to her husband's workplace insurance in a divorce three years ago. Deemed uninsurable because of a past bout with skin cancer, the Midvale real estate agent paid into COBRA -- a temporary extension of that coverage -- for 18 months, shelling out nearly $11,000 in premiums. "But I never used it. I think I was sick once," said Berrett, who couldn't justify the expense as the housing market dried up.

Now she pays for medical care as she needs it, which paid off until last June, when she blew out her knee skiing. She paid cash for the surgery, totaling $13,000.

"I'm all for accountability and people paying their share," said Berrett. "But there needs to be a happy medium where coverage is accessible and affordable for everyone."

kstewart@sltrib.com