Democrats set up fresh veto fight

President Bush has vowed to veto the proposed bill a second time

The US House of Representatives has voted again to pass a bill to expand a child health insurance plan, despite the threat of a White House veto.

It comes a week after Democrats failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to overturn President George W Bush's veto of a previous version of the bill.

The slightly reworked legislation will now go to the Senate.

The White House says it will again veto it because Mr Bush's objections to the original bill have not been addressed.

The president argued the legislation took 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.

'Cosmetic' changes

Senior Democrats said they had redrafted the bill in a bid to allay Republican concerns that the expanded programme would benefit adults, families with higher incomes and illegal immigrants.

"This is a good day because we have another opportunity to extend to children - 4m of them who are not covered by health insurance - coverage," said Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

However, the new version of the legislation passed with only 265-142 votes in the House, short of what would be needed to override a presidential veto.

Republicans said the changes had been largely cosmetic and complained the legislation had been rushed into the House.

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 say the proposed $35bn expansion, paid for by raising federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 a pack, would help give health coverage to an extra 4m children.

Mr Bush argues that expanding its coverage would encourage people currently covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage - and that the proposal is too costly.