It may never happen —- as the saying goes, it may be "too much like right" to become law. But President Bush and Congress do have a way to help Americans struggling with a tanking economy.

Emergency legislation providing affordable health insurance to those without it —- even if only for the short term —- would do far more good than the one-time stimulus checks that have flooded mailboxes in recent weeks. The program could be as simple as expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (known in Georgia as PeachCare) to cover adults. Bush vetoed a measure last fall that would have allowed a $35 billion SCHIP expansion, paid for with higher tobacco taxes. The House twice failed to override the veto.

Since then, while tens of thousands of jobs have been lost and stocks and real estate are depressed, Bush has reacted much like President Herbert Hoover, who infamously said in the early years of the Great Depression that "prosperity is just around the corner." Bush seems content to let the clock run out on his presidency and leave the problems for his successor.

Debate over health insurance is likely to be a major factor in deciding who that successor will be. In a recent ABC News-Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Americans said it was more important to provide health care coverage for all Americans, even if it means raising taxes, while less than one-third said it was more important to hold down taxes, even if it means some Americans do not have health coverage.

The newly unemployed are particularly vulnerable. Those who can still afford the cost can continue health insurance coverage through COBRA, a federal law that allows group coverage to continue for at least 18 months. But under COBRA, the ex-employee must pay often the full cost of the insurance.

Furthermore, those trying to buy health insurance on the private market often find they are turned down for coverage or charged steep premiums because of previous health problems.

Georgia does not cover adults in its PeachCare program, but others states do. For example, Rhode Island's program provided coverage for Laurie Heltman, 49, and her 16-year-old daughter.

"My kid got very, very ill," Heltman told The Boston Globe. "She had Lyme disease, and it was misdiagnosed for a very long time. For 10 weeks, she was on an IV in our home."

Heltman, who owns a small laundry, added, "Without this program, even if we had to do just the co-pays, I would have been broke. I work really hard, and I do everything I can not to ask anybody for help. But if it's going to cost me $1,000 a month for medical insurance for me and my child, that's impossible. Sometimes people need a little bit of help."

Nonetheless, some in the GOP leadership are ideologically opposed to extending that kind of help to Heltman and millions like her. They consider it a government giveaway.

Herbert Hoover had a similar philosophy. And after he left the White House, 20 years passed before Americans elected another Republican president.

—- David Beasley, for the editorial board (dbeasley@ajc.com)