Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D., Md.) told reporters in a conference call yesterday that the make-or-break vote on President Obama's push to make health coverage part of the social safety net could face delay.

Democrats had hoped to pass the bill today - and, officially, that's still the plan.

But Democrats have yet to resolve intraparty disputes over abortion funding and illegal immigrants' access to medical coverage. They cleared one hurdle yesterday when liberals supporting a government-run Medicare-for-all system withdrew their demand for a floor vote.

Hoyer sought to pin the blame for any possible slippage on delaying tactics expected from Republicans, who unanimously oppose the health-care remake.

"Nice try, Rep. Hoyer, but you can't blame Republicans when the fact is you just don't have the votes," said Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio. Republicans could stall the bill by demanding roll-call votes on parliamentary matters.

Hoyer acknowledged that Democrats were still short of the 218 votes they need to pass the bill. "There are many people who are still trying to get a comfort level that this is the right thing to do," he said. "We're very close."

One who has made up his mind against the bill is New Jersey's Rep. John Adler. He is a Democrat elected in a close contest last year from a constituency that long sent a Republican to the House.

The bill "does not do enough to contain costs, or protect small businesses, seniors, taxpayers, and middle class families," he said in a statement yesterday.

While Hoyer said he still expected a vote this evening, he said he had put lawmakers on notice they may be called to the House floor tomorrow, or even Monday or Tuesday.

The White House issued a formal endorsement of the House bill yesterday and said Obama planned to go to Capitol Hill today to rally Democrats.

House passage of the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured and put tough new restrictions on insurance companies would be a breakthrough for his agenda.

Action on health legislation was slowed as senators waited for the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on a bill written by Majority Leader Harry Reid in consultation with the White House and key committee chairmen.

Senate votes could slip into next year, but in the House, Democratic leaders are pressing forward.

They expressed optimism that when it came time to vote, they would have the votes needed to prevail in the 435-seat House. Asked Thursday if she had the votes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi replied: "We will."

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders were finishing language to bar federal funding of abortion and trying to resolve a flare-up over the treatment of illegal immigrants in the legislation that has Hispanic lawmakers up in arms.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus object to a provision in the Senate legislation - backed by the White House - that bars illegal immigrants from buying health insurance from a proposed new marketplace, even if they use their own money to buy from private companies.

These immigrants can buy private health insurance now, so the lawmakers say the White House position goes too far.

Democrats were trying to toughen prohibitions in the bill against federal funding for abortions in a way that would satisfy enough antiabortion Democrats. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was involved in the talks, but the issue was still unresolved yesterday morning.

Federal law bars government funds from being used to pay for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

The bill would create a new stream of federal money to subsidize medical insurance premiums, and the dispute is over how to apply the abortion restrictions to those funds.

Abortion opponents say language now in the bill is inadequate to ensure that only private dollars - not federal funds - can be used to pay for the procedure.

Abortion-rights supporters say that if the bill gets much more restrictive, it would deny women access to a procedure now covered by many private insurance plans.

Hoyer said Democratic leaders wanted the health-care bill "to keep the situation neutral," not shift government policy on abortion funding in one direction or another.