By Martin Vaughan
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- House Democratic leaders announced that liberal Democrats won't be given time to offer an amendment during debate on the health-care overhaul for a government single-payer health-insurance system.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.), a leading advocate of the single-payer amendment, said he voluntarily decided to withdraw it.
"Given how fluid the negotiations are on the final push to get comprehensive health-care reform that covers millions of Americans and contains costs through a public option, I became concerned that my amendment might undermine that important goal," Weiner said in a Friday press release.
A lively debate had opened up among progressive House Democrats in the past week about whether to seek a vote on the single-payer alternative. Some feared a vote would expose weak support for the plan.
House Speaker Pelosi (D., Calif.) said there is "support within Congress and throughout the country" for a single-payer system, but the Democrats' health bill "cannot include provisions some strongly advocated."
Weiner's "decision not to offer a single-payer amendment during consideration of [the health bill] is a correct one, and helps advance the passage of important health reforms by this Congress," Pelosi said in a statement.
House Democrats plan to kick off debate on the $1 trillion health-care overhaul legislation Saturday morning, and hope to vote on the measure by late Saturday.
-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@dowjones.com