GOP amendment falls short on health bill

The Senate defeated an effort by Republicans to make it harder for states to extend government-sponsored health insurance to children of legal immigrants. By voice vote, senators rejected an amendment that would have required states to extend health coverage to the vast majority of other low-income children first before covering legal immigrants. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that if states covered 95 percent of children already eligible for government-sponsored coverage, only then would his amendment allow them to insure children of newly arrived legal immigrants.