The US Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday passed a health care reform bill in a vote viewed as critical to help advance the Obama administration's health care overhaul agenda.

The legislation, drafted by Democrats, was approved on a 14-9 vote in the 23-member committee, with Republican Senator from Washington state Olympia Snowe broke away from her party to cast a "yes" vote.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana who drafted the bill, said the legislation will provide a "commonsense, balanced solution" for the enduring dilemma in the country's health care system.

Snowe, the only Republican in the committee supported the bill, said she decided to vote "yes" with a sense of history.

"When history calls, history calls," she said.

The passage would boost President Barack Obama's reform agenda, for it largely meets his goals of expanding health insurance coverage while reducing deficits.

The full Senate will vote on a health care reform bill the week after next.

But that bill will be a reconciled version of the Senate Finance Committee bill and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Even if that could pass the Senate, it has to be reconciled with the House version of the bill.

Nevertheless, the Senate Finance Committee's vote represents a pivotal step forward in the contentious health care debate.

The committee, with 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans, is the last of five congressional panels to consider health care legislation before debate begins in the full House and Senate.

On the House side, there have been meetings over the past months in an effort to merge three bills passed out of committees and bring down projected costs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, has said she expects a final version for consideration by the full chamber soon, but she hasn't provided a specific timetable.