While it will take time and a great amount of energy for Congress to enact sweeping healthcare reform to help cover the millions of Americans without insurance, the Democratic Congress does appear to be gearing up for an important move that could help get the ball rolling.

Congress is poised to give President-elect Barack Obama a quick victory by passing a bill to provide health insurance to millions of low-income children.

The House Democratic leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said the bill, scheduled for a vote in the House this week, was "very much like" legislation twice vetoed by President Bush in 2007. Legal authority for the program expires on March 31.

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Supporters of the bill said it would cover 10 million children, providing benefits for nearly 4 million who are uninsured, while continuing coverage for 6.6 million youngsters already enrolled. The federal government now spends more than $5 billion a year on the program, and while precise figures are not yet available, the expansion would more than double that cost.

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The new [House and Senate] bills, like those vetoed, would be financed by tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent cigarette tax increase, to $1 a pack.

Covering four million Americans without health insurance when somewhere between 45 million and 50 million are uncovered may seem like a small step -- but it's an important one. The measure of the success of the Obama administration will not be in legislation like the renewal and expansion of SCHIP, in lifting the ban on federal funding for stem cell research, or anything of the like. Yet that does not mean that such bills will not have an important impact on the lives of many Americans. What's more, such legislation has the potential of helping build the momentum towards broader changes with wider impact -- and greater historical importance -- that could improve the lives of countless more Americans. And it doesn't hurt that the Democrats' SCHIP bill is widely popular with voters.