Reporting from Washington President Obama on Friday postponed a high-profile trip to Asia, keeping pressure on congressional Democrats to start voting next week on the long-delayed healthcare overhaul legislation and send it to him for his signature before the end of March.

The president's change of travel plans, which will move his departure overseas from March 18 to March 21, will enable him to remain active in pushing uneasy Democrats toward final approval of his signature domestic policy initiative.

-- President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are pulling together a final version of a health care overhaul bill and pushing for House votes as early as next week. Democrats are awaiting cost assessments from the Congressional Budget Office that will allow them to finish details. Here are some of the main features as the bill takes shape:

-HOW MANY COVERED: 31 million uninsured Americans.

-INSURANCE MANDATE: Like the bills approved last year by the House and Senate, the proposal would require almost everyone to be insured or pay a fine. There is an exemption for low-income people.

Congressional Democrats embarked on the final push for a historic health care bill Thursday with no guarantee that they have the votes to pass it.

Democratic leaders were gearing up for a pair of committee hearings next week that will start the clock on a final, down-to-the-wire vote, which will require House Democrats to swallow their significant distaste for the Senate bill and to vote on faith that Senate leaders can muster the support to change it.

Reporting from Washington - Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill worked throughout the day Thursday seeking intraparty agreements over abortion, federal insurance subsidies and other issues in a healthcare package they hope to send President Obama before the end of the month.

But senior Democrats acknowledged that they were not ready to move forward, and could miss a tentative deadline for a first vote next week.

The House ethics committee decided Wednesday to close its short-lived investigation into allegations that then-Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) groped and sexually harassed several younger male staffers in his office, according to two sources familiar with the decision.

The committee concluded that Massa's resignation last week put him outside the reach of any punishment it could impose and would render any findings irrelevant. The decision set up a political battle with House Republicans, who are already targeting congressional Democrats with campaign ads saying they have failed to look deeply enough into the ethical transgressions of their party members.

WASHINGTON ? Michigan's Bart Stupak, a Democratic congressman who could help bring down health care reform over an abortion provision, is getting a primary challenge this year.

Connie Saltonstall of Charlevoix said today she plans to run against Stupak for the Democratic nomination of Michigan's First Congressional District, citing Stupak's efforts to stop health care reform if it doesn't ban use of government money for abortions. Stupak, a former state trooper from Menominee, has held the seat since 1993.

Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the "cost curve." A number of commentators are urging no votes because of this, and Republicans have asked the president to start health reform over, focusing squarely on the issue of cost reduction.

These calls overlook the actual legislation. Over the past year of debate, 10 broad ideas have been offered for bending the health-care cost curve. The Democrats' proposed legislation incorporates virtually every one of them. Here they are:

Over the last several weeks various pundits -- and Republican talkers -- have fanned out across the airwaves to proclaim that Democrats face grave political danger this fall if they are so bold as to pass health care reform in the face of united Republican opposition.

For Congressional Democrats, the source of this advice should be enough to make it completely suspect. And in fact, history shows that just the opposite is true -- and many Republicans know it.

For President Obama and Congressional Democrats, public opinion this past year has mostly gone in the wrong direction — on his job performance, on health care and economic stimulus, on midterm elections.

But there's one conspicuous exception: the president's call for reining in Wall Street. The nation's continuing angst over bailouts, bonuses and bad mortgages has made sure of that, The New York Times's John Harwood writes in The Caucus column.

Democratic activists flooding money into a primary challenge against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) say the race isn't simply about defeating the incumbent. It is also about rebuking a Democratic-controlled Congress that they say isn't pursuing an aggressive, populist agenda.

After Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced Monday that he would challenge Lincoln, liberal donors from groups such as MoveOn.org poured more than $1 million into his campaign, an unusually high sum for the first two days of campaigning.

Congressional Democrats reclaimed control of Congress in 2006 by pledging to "drain the swamp" after Republican ethics scandals rocked Capitol Hill. Now, a series of controversies involving Democratic members has robbed the party of its claim to hold the higher moral ground -- and could threaten its hold on power in this fall's elections.

The announcement Friday by Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) that he will resign amid allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer capped a week of near-daily ethical distractions for a party struggling to pass heath-care reform legislation.

(Updates with information on letters from Rep. Towns and Issa starting in the eighth paragraph )

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Two U.S. congressional Democrats investigating Toyota Motor Corp. (TM, 7203.TO) said Friday the auto maker has yet to show it has fully investigated electronic systems in its vehicles and demanded that more company officials be made available for interviews.

The demands, from Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich), head of the committee's investigative panel, came in a letter to ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats made headway on Thursday on their top legislative priority -- job creation -- when the House of Representatives approved a $15 billion package of tax credits and highway construction.

The 217 to 201 vote gave Democrats a much-needed victory after weeks of delay caused by Republican tactics, a record-setting snowstorm and internal bickering.

More job-creation efforts are in the pipeline, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

WASHINGTON - President Obama this week will begin a climactic push to rally restive Congressional Democrats to pass major health care legislation by hammering the argument that the costs of failure will be higher insurance premiums and lost coverage for individuals and businesses.

While Mr. Obama prepared for a speech on Wednesday to outline 'the way forward' and to flesh out the substance of his proposed compromise based on the bills passed by the House and Senate, the two parties on Monday stepped up their battle to define the Democrats' legislative strategy.

Two hours before President Obama opened his health-care summit, and two blocks away, a couple of dozen reporters gathered at the invitation of the Christian Science Monitor for a breakfast at which the reform proposal's doom was foreshadowed.

The guests for the group interview were Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster whose firm advised John McCain in his presidential campaign and lists dozens of other congressional Republicans among its clients, and Newt Gingrich, who became speaker of the House largely by leading the fight in 1994 to kill the Clintons' effort at health reform.

WASHINGTON - Seeing no prospect of a bipartisan agreement on health care, Congressional Democrats said Friday that they would make another effort to pass sweeping health care legislation on their own.

If anything, Democrats said, their seven-hour meeting with President Obama and Republicans on Thursday confirmed their belief that it was futile to try to work with Republicans on a major health care bill because the philosophical differences between the parties were too profound.

Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp., parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, said it is considering a request by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to discuss premium increases.

Sebelius on Wednesday also asked CEOs of the five major health insurers -- HCSC, UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna and CIGNA -- to attend a meeting Wednesday to explain why their premiums are rising.

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*Obama seeks bipartisan healthcare action in six weeks

*Republicans say time frame unreasonable

*Democrats could use parliamentary tactic to pass reform

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - After a seven-hour healthcare summit that did little to change Republican hearts and minds, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats face a challenge on Friday in deciding their next moves to reform the costly U.S. system.

WASHINGTON - Seeking momentum on the eve of a crucial meeting on health care reform, congressional Democrats on Wednesday seized on evidence that California's largest for-profit health insurer spent tens of millions of dollars on lavish corporate retreats and executive salaries even as it planned dramatic rate hikes for nearly 800,000 customers who buy coverage on their own.

Executives at WellPoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross of California, came under fire at a House hearing after internal e-mails and other documents.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, holding out little hope for Thursday's televised bipartisan summit on health care, are prepared to try for a far-reaching bill in the coming weeks without a single Republican vote.

Barring an unexpected two-party breakthrough at the summit, Democratic leaders feel they can't afford to fail, leaving them empty-handed on a huge priority in an already difficult election year. It's far from clear they can gather the votes, however, and it will take a major effort to unite fractious Democrats.