GALESBURG - Congressman Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, was in Galesburg Friday to speak in favor of an override of President Bush's Oct. 3 veto of a bipartisan bill that would have expanded health care coverage for children.

During a stop at OSF St. Mary Medical Center, Hare said it will be an uphill battle to gain 15 votes by Thursday to overturn Bush's veto of the SCHIP legislation.

"Last month, we passed a great piece of legislation in the House," Hare said. "It will mean 6 million children we have in health care will remain and it will add 4 million young people to the health rolls."

Hare voted in favor of $393 million in federal funding for SCHIP, an 11-state program that provides health coverage for low income children whose family incomes are more than the limit to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance.

The program is not inexpensive, Hare admitted. The $35 billion over five years would be funded by an increase of 61 cents in the federal cigarette tax, to $1 per pack.

Hare said when he returns to Washington, D.C., he will start knocking on the doors of the eight Democrats in the House who voted against the bill. He said that means seven more votes would be needed, if those Democrats can be persuaded to support the legislation.

"If I were a betting man, I would say it will be tough to get all 15 (votes)," Hare said.

He said more than 45 Republicans supported the bill in the House, including Congressman Ray LaHood of Peoria. Hare complimented LaHood for comments LaHood made on the House floor in support of SCHIP.

"It shouldn't be a Democrat-Republican sort of bill," Hare said. "I commend Illinois and other states for having this. The last thing we need in the world is to lose this."

Bush justified his veto by arguing it was the first step toward socialized medicine in this country. He also said the program would be expanded to include too many children living in higher-income families. Hare said the president's veto was the result of "some unfounded calculations on his part.

"Ninety-two percent of the children covered here would fall under 200 percent of the poverty level," Hare said. "The president's numbers just don't jibe."

Sixty senators voted in favor of the bill, including notable GOP senators Charles Grassley of Iowa, and Orrin Hatch of Utah. Sixty-six votes are needed for an override.

At the time of the veto, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people."

Hare said if the override is unsuccessful, it will not be the end of the battle.

"If we can't override the veto this time, we plan to redo (the bill) and send it back to the president again and again and again," he said.

Hare said the bill approved by Congress would add 154,000 Illinois children to the program's current 373,000. He said the bill would generate $343 million in wages from 10,000 new jobs.

"Seventy-two percent of the American people support this," he said, including 66 percent of Republicans, according to one poll.

Of five hospitals he has toured recently, the percentage of people without health insurance using the hospitals' emergency rooms ranges from 30 to 37 percent, Hare said.

"It seems to me we ought to be doing more preventative care," he said.

The congressman said he would like to see more community clinics to serve the health-care needs of residents of small towns, as well as more being done in the area of dental care.

"We could pay for this bill in five years with what we spend in Iraq in 3 1/2 months," he said. "Hopefully we're going to see a wind-down of this war, sooner, rather than later."