The two ideas are the emerging focus of the governor's working group on the uninsured.

More than a year ago, Huntsman tasked the group with devising a scheme to halve by 2010 the number of Utahns without health insurance. The group is on track to deliver a proposal for the 2007 legislative session.

Huntsman's spokesman Mike Mower stressed, "We are considering a variety of options. We do not have a formal plan to unveil."

Options for financing would involve private insurers, employers and increased enrollment in existing government programs.

The working group is still reviewing innovations in other states, said Mower. "Our goal is to drive overall health care costs down, not to increase governmental involvement in health care."

Norman Thurston, a policy analyst at the state health department, said the group has targeted children because "it's the right thing to do" and they account for a sizeable chunk - 71,000 - of Utah's uninsured.

Conservative health department estimates put the state's total uninsured population at 292,800. The U.S. Census reports a higher figure at 337,000, or 14 percent of the population.

"We want every family to feel like they can afford health insurance for their children," said Thurston.

Small-business owners merit special attention, because their workers tend to be insured at higher rates than those at large companies, and the problem is getting worse, said Thurston. "These just seem natural places to start."

The focus pleases advocates for children and health care reform, though they declined to pass judgment without knowing more.

"It's laudable for the governor to want to cover half the uninsured, but we have to find a way that is sustainable," said Judi Hilman, executive director of the Utah Health Policy Project.

Hilman and others pushed for legislation last year to allow small businesses to pool together and purchase coverage from a state-sponsored insurance plan for public employees.

Thurston said that's still on the table, but one of many solutions being floated.

One plan already in the works would boost lagging enrollment in Covered at Work. The program encourages low-wage workers to enroll in their employer's insurance plan by offering a $50-a-month subsidy to help pay the premiums. But the subsidy proved too low to entice people.

State health officials are seeking federal approval to raise the subsidy to $150.

They also want to expand the program to include subsidized family coverage for workers whose children are on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Doing so allows spouses to be covered and would free up spots in CHIP, which is nearing its enrollment cap, said Thurston. The working group also is exploring ways to expand outreach to parents who don't enroll their children in Medicaid even though they qualify.

For middle-income families who earn too much to qualify for CHIP or Medicaid, the working group is looking to the insurance industry to create affordable options, said Thurston. "The thrust of the initiative is to use Utah's well-financed insurance market to reach more people."

Karen Crompton, director of Voices for Utah Children, doubts the private market can shoulder the entire burden.

She welcomes any attempt to market Medicaid to more kids, but said a quicker fix would be to remove the program's asset test. Doing so would immediately free up 8,000 spots in CHIP. That's the number of CHIP enrollees whose families currently meet the income threshold for Medicaid, but are disqualified from that program and shifted to CHIP because their parents' assets exceed $3,000.

kstewart@sltrib.com