WASHINGTON — The House majority leader, Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said on Friday that he expected the House to pass sweeping health care legislation on Saturday evening. But he acknowledged that Democrats were still trying to corral the necessary 218 votes, and that what he called Republican delaying tactics could push the vote back to Sunday or early next week.
“We will be successful in the next two or three days,” Mr. Hoyer said.
The House could finish its work on the bill, a $1.1 trillion, 10-year overhaul of the health insurance system that many Democrats have sought for years, sometime around 7 or 8 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, Mr. Hoyer said. But he added, “Delaying tactics could be employed that would take longer,” and he said the House “could make additional time if needed” on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.
House Democratic leaders are still trying to draft an amendment to the bill that would tighten restrictions on some uses of federal money, as demanded by Democrats who are opposed to abortion.
At the same time, the leaders are trying to satisfy the large number of House Democrats who support abortion rights. Democrats who belong to the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus say that a new government insurance plan, which would be created under the bill, should be allowed to cover abortion procedures, using premium money paid by subscribers rather than federal tax money.
As House Democratic leaders worked to round up votes, they delayed a planned visit to the Capitol by President Obama to personally ask lawmakers for their support. Democrats said that meeting, originally set for Friday, would now take place on Saturday morning.
Republicans cited the Labor Department’s report on Friday that the unemployment picture continued to worsen in October as evidence that this is the wrong time to pass the health care legislation.
“There is no higher priority than putting Americans back to work,” said Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House. “I have never seen greater evidence that Washington is out of touch with the American people. Democrats continue in a headlong rush to a government takeover of health care in the face of rising unemployment.”
In its monthly report, the Labor Department said on Friday that the United States economy shed 190,000 nonfarm jobs in October, and that the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September.
Democratic vote counters, working as thousands of conservative protesters chanted “kill the bill” outside the Capitol on Thursday and later swarmed through Congressional office buildings, said that while they were not yet sure of the necessary 218 confirmed yea votes, they were confident of eventually exceeding that total.
Readying for the first floor test of legislation months in the making, top Democrats appealed to undecided lawmakers while trying to quell resistance on several fronts, including the anti-abortion lawmakers as well as Hispanic House members who worried the measure was too punitive regarding illegal immigrants.
“We have a historic opportunity for us to, again, provide quality health care for all Americans,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. “It’s something that many of us have worked our whole political lifetimes on.”
Mr. Obama touted two endorsements for the House measure from the American Medical Association and AARP, the senior advocacy group. In remarks to reporters on Thursday, he noted that the endorsements covered viewpoints from two distinct sides of the debate: elderly Americans fearful that a health care overhaul could cut into Medicare, and the nation’s doctors and medical professionals.
“We are closer to passing this reform than ever before,” the president said. “And now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us, now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer.”
While Democrats sought to build support, Republicans engaged in an equally determined effort to block the measure, with House Republicans lining up to address thousands of conservatives gathered at the West Front of the Capitol. No House Republican is expected to vote for the measure, meaning its entire support has to come from within the 258-member Democrat caucus.
At the rally, initiated by Representative Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, those attending were encouraged to press their lawmakers to vote against the bill. Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, called it the “greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I’ve been in Washington.”
“Let’s get to work,” Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, exhorted the crowd. “We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and Saturday.”
Arriving from around the country, the opponents were imbued with conservative principles and skepticism of the federal government’s ability to administer health care programs.
"The government couldn't even get the shots out," said Karen Ambrose of Sunbury, Ohio, ridiculing the government's efforts to vaccinate people for the H1N1 virus as an example of what government-run health care would look like. "Let's just get the government out of all this."
After the rally, the Capitol police arrested a dozen protesters on charges of causing a disturbance at offices of Ms. Pelosi in the Cannon Building.
Some Democrats from more conservative districts, like Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, Representative Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Representative Jim Marshall of Georgia and Representative Bobby Bright of Alabama, made it clear they would oppose the measure.
"The worst thing we could do in a recession is raise taxes, and this bill does just that," said Mr. Boren, who also said he feared the proposal would lead to a single-payer national health care system. "Finally, I do not believe that the possibility for taxpayer-funded abortion has been clearly and emphatically removed from this legislation."
Several others, including Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee and Representative Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, remained undecided. Mr. Altmire, a centrist Democrat from a district west of Pittsburgh, said he had been courted heavily in recent days by members of the Democratic leadership and their emissaries seeking to nail down his vote.
"They are trying to get you any way they can," said Mr. Altmire, who also met for an hour on Thursday with conservative constituents who traveled to Washington to take part in the rally. "I am doing the best I can against competing interests."
Two new Democratic members of the House, victors in special elections on Tuesday to fill vacant seats, have said they back the bill, and others among the undecided were moving toward support.
"I'm getting there," said Representative Zack Space, an Ohio Democrat who won a Republican seat in the Democratic takeover of the House in 2006.
In an effort to attract votes, House leaders revised their bill to help certain doctor-owned hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income people on Medicaid.
The change was intended to win support for the bill from Democrats like Representative Harry Teague of New Mexico. He has not said how he will vote, but aides said he had been trying to put language into the bill that would improve the situation for a doctor-owned hospital in his district.
While the House prepares for a vote, no bill has been moved to the floor of the Senate, where Democratic leaders say they are awaiting cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.