Pennsylvania's House is set to approve a scaled-down version of Gov. Ed Rendell's health care plan that would cover about 300,000 Pennsylvanians. The compromise found common ground among several constituencies: low-income families get affordable coverage, the small businesses that employ some of them get grants to help finance health care, and doctors get a 10-year extension of a malpractice insurance subsidy program.

The House gave preliminary approval on Wednesday and is expected to hold the final vote on Monday, with 11 Republicans joining the Democratic majority. The outcome in the Senate, however, is uncertain, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Rendell had initially wanted to provide subsidies to families with incomes up to $62,000 a year—about 800,000 people. The revised version sets the threshold at $42,000—about 300,000 people by 2013. Families would have to pay a small premium, for instance $50 a month for a family of four.

Funding would come from Medicaid, state tobacco settlement money, and the malpractice fund. Coverage would include prescriptions, behavioral health, preventive care, and chronic-disease management—which can often save money if it keeps people out of hospitals and emergency rooms.

Portions of Rendell's intitial proposal were signed into law last year, including a provision that will provide incentives for hospitals to prevent hospital acquired infections beginning in 2009.