A Senate committee has approved a bill to reform US healthcare, a key step in President Barack Obama's attempt to overhaul¹ the system.

一个议院委员会核准了美国医疗保健改革提案，这是奥巴马总统改革保健体制尝试的关键一步。

Healthcare and reform: Strong opinions in US

Senators voted by 14 votes to nine to pass the bill, with one Republican joining Democrats² on the Senate Finance Committee in voting in favour.

Senator Olympia Snowe became the first Republican to back the proposals.

The reforms, intended to cut costs and make insurance more affordable³（支付得起的）, are Mr Obama's top domestic priority.

The president welcomed the committee's decision, calling it a "critical milestone⁴".

"We are closer than ever before to passing healthcare reform but we are not there yet," he said. "Now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back... It is time to dig in further and get this done."

'Miles to go'

Announcing her decision to break with her party on Tuesday, Senator Snowe said: "When history calls, history calls."

However, the moderate（文件分子，政体） Republican said it did not necessarily mean she would support later versions of a bill.

"There are many, many miles to go in this legislative⁵ journey," she said. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what it will be tomorrow."

The panel's bill, which was drafted after weeks of at times bitterly bipartisan（两党的） debate, sets out a 10-year $829bn (£525bn) plan to cut health costs and provide affordable health insurance to most Americans.

Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the panel, criticised the legislation and predicted that the bill would move "leftward" as it progressed through Congress.

"This bill is already moving on a slippery slope（灾难性的急剧下滑） to more government control of healthcare," he said.

The finance committee's bill must now be combined with a bill drafted by the Senate Health Committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.

It is not guaranteed to pass, as it needs all the Democrats, two independents and one Republican to vote in favour.