House To Take Up Healthcare Overhaul This Week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will take up a sweeping healthcare reform bill later this week, House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

Democrats also will allow Republicans to offer an alternative to the 1,990-page bill that House leaders unveiled last week after weeks of closed-door negotiations, he said.

"It is our intention either Friday or Saturday to have this bill on the floor," Hoyer told reporters, adding that House votes could occur on Monday and Tuesday of next week as well.

A broad healthcare overhaul is the top domestic priority of President Barack Obama, who has set a goal of reining in costs, expanding coverage and more tightly regulating the insurance market.

The Senate is developing its own similar legislation, and both chambers are racing to complete the effort by the end of the year.

The House bill includes a government-run insurance option, which has become a flashpoint in the debate over the healthcare overhaul. Obama and supporters say the option would create competition in the insurance market, while critics say it would lead to a government takeover of the sector.

The House bill is designed to expand coverage to millions of uninsured people living in the United States, and offer subsidies to help the uninsured purchase insurance through newly created exchanges.

It requires individuals to buy insurance and all but the smallest employers to offer health coverage to workers. It also would bar insurers from refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions and eliminate the industry's exemption from federal antitrust laws.