The Nixon administration is defending itself against the suggestion that it has side-stepped an opportunity to keep a campaign pledge.

Last year, candidate Nixon promised to simplify the enrollment process, to get as many children as possible signed up for subsidized health care. But his office has not cross-checked state databases to identify children receiving some state assistance, but not Medicaid.

Doing so, could add as many as 28,000 more children, at a cost of about $33 million.

"There are other options for getting even more children covered by health insurance,” said Nixon’s Communications Director Jack Cardetti. “But what we're doing right now is we're waiting for the federal healthcare reform to move through the Congress. Because, in a matter of weeks, the way health care is delivered in this country could change dramatically. And we wanna assess those changes before we move forward with a new state initiative here."

Cardetti notes that Missouri has registered over 40,000 new Medicaid recipients since Nixon took office and two thirds of them are children.