Surrounded by four families who have fallen through the cracks in the health care system, Gov. Blagojevich told them Thursday that under his proposed new insurance plan, "Your children will have the same access to health care as my children."

The Sun-Times reported this week that the program, called All Kids, would offer children's health insurance to families making more than $40,000 for premiums on a sliding scale, starting at $40 per month per child. Blagojevich said the plan is aimed at working families who make too much to qualify for Public Aid insurance.

That's what happened when single mom Bianca Sanchez got a raise. Public Aid dropped her, and she couldn't afford the $400 a month to insure her asthmatic daughter through her employer's insurance program. Now Sanchez pays for her daughters' four medications and $90 medical appointments out of pocket, and hopes she comes out ahead.

"If this program goes through, it's going to change my life and my daughter's life," she said. "I wouldn't have to worry about saving up enough for medicine for her from pay period to pay period."

Sanchez's family was one of four invited by the governor to the Blue Angel restaurant on the Northwest Side, where the governor touted his program to the media. While the kids played with Teddy bears and the food on their fruit plates, the governor passed the microphone around and listened to tales of struggles with the insurance system.

Stories included a couple trying to get a real-estate business off the ground, and a woman whose husband's employer has hiked insurance premiums to the point they can no longer afford the $800 a month to cover their four children.

The governor said he hoped to get the program, which would be financed by $56 million in Medicaid savings, passed in time to be up and running by next July.

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