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SPRINGFIELD — The “All Kids” health-insurance program, an extension of state-subsidized coverage to uninsured children, doesn’t start until July 1.

The rules that will govern the program, including those spelling out arrangements with doctors and hospitals, have not even been proposed.

But neither point stopped Gov. Rod Blagojevich from traveling to Washington proclaiming the program a great success and applauding his own conviction for pursuing it. The Democrat, during his trip last Monday, even urged Congress to duplicate the program nationwide.

“At the end of the day it really comes down to how bad do you want it. How far are you willing to go, and are you willing to fight for it to get it done?” Blagojevich told the national press corps in a news conference broadcast on C-SPAN. “For me, it makes being governor worthwhile.”

In Springfield on the same day, state Sen. Bill Brady said he would work to abolish the All Kids program. Brady, R-Bloomington, is among four Republicans vying to unseat Blagojevich in next year’s election.

“I would certainly halt enrollment immediately,” Brady said. “And we would deal as fairly and as judiciously with those individuals who were enrolled in the program as feasibly possibly. I’d make every effort to work toward helping them get enrolled in a private-sector policy.”

The race for governor is well under way, and All Kids, a program spearheaded by the incumbent, is fast becoming a political football. Blagojevich is doing a touchdown dance, but Republicans have thrown a challenge flag and are calling for a review of the play.

“You just added another huge program. How do you pay for it?” asked Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, another Republican running for governor.

But while Topinka suggested the health-care expansion is fiscally irresponsible, she stopped short of calling for its demise.

“I want to look at it because I think it may be worth something,” she said. “But if it’s worth something, we have to be able to back it up.”

The governor’s aides say the plan would extend coverage to about 125,000 kids who aren’t eligible, while attracting 125,000 more kids to the state’s program for the poor.

Blagojevich intends to finance the health-care expansion, estimated to cost $45 million, by shifting 1.7 million folks enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program to a managed-care model called primary-care case management.

Former Helene Curtis executive Ron Gidwitz, a third GOP candidate for governor, also stopped short of saying he wants to abolish All Kids. But like Topinka, he used the program to portray himself as fiscally conservative.

Topinka and Gidwitz support abortion rights and civil unions for gay couples. They generally are left of Brady and Dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, the fourth GOP candidate for governor, on social issues. Oberweis did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrat Edwin Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman who said he planned to challenge Blagojevich in the March primary election, also did not return a phone call for comment.