Does Richard Moore's health care plan for kids pick an unnecessary fight?

The state treasurer, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, announced a plan Thursday to help insure children whose families are between 200 and 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or from $41,300 to $61,950 for a family of four.

But the N.C. Kids Care program will already help many of those families next year.

Moore's plan addresses many of the same issues as Kids Care, but it provides slightly more help to children at the lower end of that spectrum.

That difference puts Moore's plan squarely at odds with the Bush administration — a fact he has used to his advantage in an online petition, an ad campaign and a YouTube video.

Details after the jump.

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Richard Moore's plan to insure children would cost $120 million.

The state treasurer unveiled his plan Thursday to get more uninsured children on the Health Choice and Medicaid health care plans through incentives to hospitals and schools.

According to the Associated Press, the Carolina Cares for Children plan is mostly carrot with little stick. There would be no punishment for failing to include a child's insurance policy number on a state tax form, for example.

Moore also proposed expanding access to the State Children's Health Insurance Program to up to three times the federal poverty level, or $61,950 for a family of four. The limit is currently twice the poverty level.

The expansion is one reason he targeted President Bush in a recent online petition.

Bush has criticized expansion, saying children from higher income families are likely to have access to private insurance, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Richard Moore has released a proposal for universal health coverage for children.

In a speech today to the North Carolina AFL-CIO, the candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination unveiled a plan called Carolina Cares for Children that would cover the 250,000 children in the state without health care.

"Families in North Carolina ought to know that their children can go to the doctor when they need to," he said. "Healthier kids will be healthier adults and that means lower health care costs for everyone."

Under the proposal, the state would use a carrot-and-stick approach to get children on existing Medicaid and Health Choice plans: Offer financial incentives to hospitals, schools and community health centers to enroll children and requiring parents list their children's policy numbers on their state tax return.

The plan would also simplify the enrollment process for children and extend state-provided coverage.

Full health insurance would be available to children in families up to 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, and subsidized coverage to those between 250 and 300 percent.