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| Bush veto for child health bill |
| US President George W Bush has vetoed a bill to expand a children's healthcare insurance scheme, after it was passed with a large majority in the Sena
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 4-October-2007
2:39:48 AM |
| Mr Bush argues it takes the programme beyond its original purpose of insuring children from low-income families.
The vetoed bill proposed higher tobacco taxes to provide an extra $35bn (£17bn) to insure some 10 million children.
Children's health insurance is set to be a campaign issue in next year's elections, analysts say.
Eighteen Republican senators joined Democrats last week in passing the legislation by a 67-29 vote.
But the House of Representatives, which approved the bill by 265-159, was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
It is only the fourth time Mr Bush has used his veto power in the course of his presidency.
Public support
The State Children's Health Insurance Programme (SCHIP) currently subsidises health care for some 6.6 million people, most of them children.
It is directed at families who earn too much to qualify for the Medicaid programme for the poor but cannot afford private health insurance cover.
Supporters of the bill said the proposed $35bn expansion, paid for by increasing federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 a pack, would help give health coverage to an additional four million children.
Mr Bush had said he wanted only a $5bn increase in funding for the scheme.
He argued that expanding its coverage further would encourage people currently covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage - and that the proposal was too costly.
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