Three House committees have completed their work on a bill to reform the health care system for a vote later this fall, when a single-payer option is also scheduled for debate.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed its version of the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act by a vote of 31-28 last week, joining colleagues in the Ways and Means and Health and Labor committees in passing legislation calling for, among other things, a public insurance option and mandates for individuals and employers.

Five Democrats joined the Energy and Commerce Committee’s 23 Republicans in opposition of the legislation: Reps. John Barrow of Georgia, Rick Boucher of Virginia, Jim Matheson of Utah, Charles Melancon of Louisiana and Bart Stupak of Michigan.

With the vote by the Energy and Commerce Committee prior to the August recess in the House, key leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will work over the break to consolidate the three committee bills into one bill for full consideration in the House.

Also up for debate in the full House will be an up-or-down vote on single-payer reform, according to Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the Middle Class Caucus and member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Weiner said that committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) informed him that Pelosi will allow a vote by the entire House on a single-payer option before the end of the year.

“Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center stage,” Weiner said in a statement. “Americans have a clear choice. Their member of Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker is giving us that choice.”

Henry A. Waxman

With the passage of the Energy and Commerce Committee bill, Waxman called it “a significant victory” that all three committees were able to pass comprehensive health reform.

“This bill will deliver the results the nation’s health care system so desperately needs:  lower costs, better quality, and broader coverage,” he said in a statement. “I hope that when we return from recess, the House will act expeditiously to enact this bill into law.”

The legislation for the most part mirrors that of the two other House committees, costing $1 trillion over the next decade and financed through tighter controls on Medicare and Medicaid costs and by taxing businesses and wealthy Americans.

Through negotiations with fiscally conservative or “Blue Dog” Democrats, Waxman reached a deal exempting more small businesses from a penalty to provide their employees with insurance and altered the payment provision on the government-run insurance program, according to published reports.

Under the latter deal, the secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department would negotiate with health care providers in the same way private insurers conduct business, rather than connecting payouts to Medicare reimbursement rates, according to the Washington Post.

Support for the public option was one of the main sticking points among members of the Energy and Commerce committee and is seen as a major topic for debate in the full House.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee will need to pick up its work after the recess, setting Sept. 16 as a deadline for its own bill. That legislation will be merged with a bill approved by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a single piece of legislation up for debate by the entire Senate soon thereafter.