JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- For two years, nightly prayers were the only health care Margaret and Richard Ahart could afford their children.

"We just prayed that nothing major happened to them," said Margaret Ahart of Tuscumbia.

That was before lawmakers passed MC+ for Kids, which for the past five years has provided health insurance to some of the state's neediest children.

Now lawmakers are trying to make sure the Children's Health Insurance Plan -- MC+ for Kids -- will be around for another five years. The law allowing for MC+ for Kids ends this summer.

Roughly 77,000 Missouri children are insured by MC+ for Kids, said Katherine Martin, director of the Department of Social Services.

In 1996, the Aharts lost their medical benefits when the air-dryer factory where Margaret worked closed down. Richard Ahart's employer, a trucking company, is too small to provide health insurance.

"We were left with nothing," Margaret Ahart said.

Older children in poor families don't always qualify for Medicaid benefits. MC+ for Kids works to include these children.

The $60 million program is a federal and state partnership. In fiscal year 2001, Missouri chipped in $19 million -- or about 2 percent of its Medicaid budget.

Under the program, a child must be uninsured for six months before qualifying.

To receive free health care, the child's family income cannot be higher than 185 percent above the federal poverty level, which for a family of four last year was $32,952. Martin said 79 percent of the children in the program are in this level of service. There is a sliding scale for families with more money.

Families have to own less than $250,000 in assets to qualify for MC+ for Kids.

Both houses in Missouri are seeking to extend the program.