Governors step up push for children's health funding

The american nation's governors stepped up pressure on the Bush administration Sunday to boost federal spending on a health insurance program serving low-income children.

 During its annual meeting, the National Governors
Association reaffirmed support for expanding the State Children's Health
Insurance Program while declining to endorse a specific funding amount.
The program subsidizes insurance for children and some
adults with incomes too high for Medicaid but not high enough to afford private
insurance.
The Senate Finance Committee last week approved a five-year,
$35 billion expansion, to be paid for with a 61-cents-per-pack increase in the
federal cigarette tax.
Supporters said that would allow 6.6 million people to
maintain their existing health coverage while adding 3.2 million uninsured
children to the program.
President Bush has threatened a veto, saying the program
should grow only by $5 billion. It will expire Sept. 30 if Congress and the
White House can't agree on terms for continuing it.