House backs kids' health bill

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defying a veto threat from President George W. Bush, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to expand a health care program for children in low-income families and raise tobacco taxes to pay for it.

The House voted 265-159 in favor of the bill, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto. Forty-five Republicans broke ranks with Bush and voted with Democrats in support of the bill. The Senate is expected to take up the measure this week.

The bill aims to insure more children in low-income families that cannot afford health insurance but earn too much to qualify for the Medicaid program for the poor.

After the vote, the White House repeated its veto threat.

The bill moves the health care program "away from its original intent of covering poor children by providing insurance to kids in some families making as much as $83,000 per year. As a result, the president will veto this legislation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

Sponsors of the bill have said Bush's claim last week that families making as much as $83,000 a year would qualify for the program are false and that the bill would discourage states from extending coverage to higher income families.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure enjoyed widespread support within the health industry and among voters and said Bush "will find himself alone" if he vetoes the bill. She said Democratic leaders would keep trying and reach out to Republicans until they get a veto-proof two-thirds majority to override Bush's veto.

"This fight will not end this week or next," Pelosi said. "This legislation will haunt him again and again and again. It's not going away. The children are not going away."