The US House of Representatives will open debate on legislation to remake US health care late this week, with key votes expected early next week, a top Democratic leader told reporters Tuesday.

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said lawmakers will take up the bill "either Friday or Saturday," with key votes maybe Monday or Tuesday and a final vote expected certainly before the November 11 Veterans Day holiday.

- I'm confident of prevailing, and I'm confident of prevailing before Veterans Day - he said. - I'm confident we're going to pass this bill. -

Hoyer, who manages the House floor, said Republicans will be allowed to offer their alternative to the Democratic-written, White-House backed legislation to overhaul US health care.

President Barack Obama has made a sweeping health care overhaul his top domestic priority, and his Democratic allies who control the House and Senate hope to complete their work in 2009.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage, with an estimated 36 million Americans uninsured.

Yet Washington spends vastly more on health care -- both per person and as a share of national income as measured by Gross Domestic Product -- than other industrialized democracies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The United States spent about 7,290 dollars per person in 2007, more than double what Britain, France, and Germany, with no meaningful edge in the quality of care and lags behind OECD averages in life expectancy and infant mortality.