Obama has an uphill battle in overhauling health care coverage in the US, which has the costliest system in the industrialised world and leaves about 46 million people uninsured. There have been no serious reforms in four decades.

Conservatives have strongly opposed any more government intervention in the country's largely-private system. But Obama has also taken fire from fellow left-leaning Democrats for suggesting a government-run insurance option could be left out of the final package.

The reform battle has been extremely partisan to date. The best hope for a solution lies in a group of six lawmakers in the Senate Finance Committee - three Republicans and three Democrats - that have been haggling for weeks over a compromise bill.

The committee's Democratic chairman, Senator Max Baucus, said Wednesday that he will release his version of the bill next week, with or without Republican support. The Finance Committee is one of five committees that have developed proposals in Congress.