House may vote on health care next week: Larson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives may vote on a healthcare reform bill next week, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Representative John Larson, said on Friday.

House Democratic leaders may not wait for a vote from the Energy and Commerce committee before moving a version of the healthcare overhaul legislation to the floor, Larson said.

Fiscally conservative Democrats on that committee have refused to go along with the proposal over its high cost of $1 trillion over 10 years and that has stalled the process of getting a bill to a vote in the full House before it begins a monthlong recess on July 31.

Larson said House Democrats will meet on Monday afternoon to go over a summary of the health care reform bill, section by section, that was handed to them Friday morning.

This version takes some ideas from the Energy and Commerce panel, he said. But Larson added "we might not" wait for a vote from the panel. The bill was sketched out, but is still a work in progress, he said.

He denied the leaders have decided just to bypass the Energy and Commerce Committee.

"We're not skipping over," he said. "They have a lot of stuff that's already done. Whether they vote on that or not, that's another thing."

Asked how long Monday's caucus meeting would last, he said, "We intend to stay as long as it takes to try to develop and try to get ... consensus on the bill itself."

Asked if he thought there would be a floor vote on the health care bill next week, Larson said: "I do. ... Of course, I'm an eternal optimist, one who's a cheerful warrior. ... Our goal is to continue to inform (members) and get them as much information, and then if we've got the consensus there, we go."

President Barack Obama has pressed Congress to work swiftly on the bill with an eye toward final approval before the end of the year.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Editing by Jackie Frank) (For a TAKE A LOOK on healthcare, click on [nN07323916])