He also said the House bill will include a "public option," that is, working people will be allowed to participate in a group plan provided by Medicare/Medicaid to cover their health expenses.

But, he said the government will also offer to subsidize private insurance plans devised to cover those without health coverage.

Mr. Pallone said that constitutes a compromise between liberals who want a single-payer program, and conservatives who want to retain the current system.

"We will seek to have these programs designed so they will compete with each other," he said.

And, he added, a House bill will also include an individual mandate. "We want the wealthy people and the young people to be in the pool because that will bring down the total cost to everyone," he said.

The estimated cost of the reform program under the budget submitted by President Obama in February would be $634 billion over 10 years.

Half is estimated to come from a $318 billion increase in taxes on the wealthy, defined as couples making more than $250,000 per year and individuals making more than $200,000.

The tax increase would occur by reducing the benefit the wealthy get on tax deductions. As one example, taxpayers in the current top tax bracket of 35 percent would see their tax deduction for every $1 given to charity drop from 35 cents to 28 cents.

The other half of the money for expanding health care — $318 billion — would come from curtailing payments to hospitals and insurance companies under Medicare, including Medicare Advantage, and drug payments under Medicaid

Under the timeline outlined by Rep. Pallone today, the House and Senate committees want to report out a healthcare reform bill by May, which would allow both Houses to complete work on differing bills before Congress departs for its month-long summer recess in early August.

That will allow for talks aimed at reconciling the differing bills to occur during the fall, he said.

One key vote must occur this week. The House and Senate are both expected to complete work on their budget blueprints or "reconciliation" this week.

The House reconciliation language is expected to allow lawmakers to bundle into a single bill all facets of health-care reform, but it remains unclear whether the Senate version will do.

That is expected to result in tough negotiations when Congress returns from a two-week recess the week of April 20 over whether the reconciliation package will include a provision allowing Congress to include all aspects of healthcare reform in a single bill.

If Congress does so, it will allow healthcare reform to pass the Senate with a majority vote, not the 60 votes required under regular order.

In his comments, Mr. Pallone made clear to the underwriters and agents that a public/private partnership will be required for a reformed healthcare reform system to work.

"We want to upgrade the existing employer-based healthcare system," he said.

The number of people who purchase employer-based health coverage, he said, has dropped from 70 percent to 60 percent, "and we don't want that to go down."