NDP Leader Jack Layton is expected to respond Friday to a Liberal health-care proposal that could decide whether he will force a pre-holiday election.

Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh drafted a deal that the NDP received late Thursday. Layton pored over it and is expected to announce Friday whether it satisfies his health-care demands.

If it doesn't, Layton has threatened to take away the support of the NDP's 18 seats, likely prompting the fall of the government.

The Liberals have already announced $41 billion for health care over 10 years. They're also set to introduce benchmarks on waiting-times that they say will speed up medical service.

But the NDP has demanded a written admission by the federal government that private health care is growing in Canada, as well as concrete steps on how to fight it.

Dosanjh said putting together the package was complicated because of federal-provincial jurisdiction issues.

Dosanjh said on CTV's Mike Duffy Live that amending the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act or the Canada Health Act requires, by law, to consult first with all of the provinces.

"That's why we've been working very hard since Monday, since we received the (NDP)proposals, to craft this particular proposal that we would provide to the NDP," Dosanjh told Duffy.

Layton, meanwhile, expressed to reporters that, so far, he isn't seeing any grounds for an agreement to be reached between the Liberals and the NDP.

"We've been asking about this issue for well over a year. And Mr. Dosanjh continually gets up in the house and says he's going to protect public health care," said Layton.

"The idea that this is somehow going to take a long time for him to put together a position today just simply shows that they've been doing absolutely nothing on the file and just simply allowing privatization to take place in this country."

Dosanjh said he disagrees. He said the $41 billion promised to the provinces is "about strengthening public health care; is about making sure that our public health-care system remains vigorous and meets the needs of Canadians."

The health minister said despite the bickering, the Liberals and NDP share the same objective: "to strengthen the public health-care system."

"I believe there's room for some coming together on this issue," Dosanjh added.

The Liberals need the support of the NDP to hold off on having an election until after the final Gomery report, due out in February.

But in the wake of Justice John Gomery's blistering report on the "elaborate kickback scheme" that turned the sponsorship program into a multimillion-dollar fiasco, both the Tories and the Bloc have made clear their willingness to hit the hustings as soon as possible.

The Liberals hold 133 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons. They would need the support of the NDP to hold off a motion of non-confidence by the Tories and the Bloc Quebecois, which combined hold 152 seats. There are four independents and one vacancy.

Emerging from his party's caucus meeting on Wednesday, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was not optimistic that an election could come shortly.

"We simply don't have a certainty. Frankly, it's Mr. Layton who has kept the government in office and it is Mr. Layton who has to make that decision," he told reporters.

"We're willing to bring the government down but we're not willing to lose another vote."

The Liberals managed to stave off a defeat in May with the help of the NDP.

In related news, former prime minister Jean Chretien has said he will foot the bill for the rest of his legal battles against Gomery.

Meanwhile, Harper has told Montreal newspaper La Presse that if his party is elected, he will sue the Liberal party. The civil suit would be aimed at recuperating all of the money lost through the sponsorship scandal.