US Republicans have said they will only agree to raising the federal debt ceiling if the Obama health law is delayed for a year.
The demand headlines a conservative wish list the party will put forward in the political stand-off over raising the government's borrowing limit.
The US is set to hit the debt ceiling on 17 October, leaving the government short of money to pay its bills.
It is one of two looming fiscal deadlines that is stalemating Congress.
The federal government also faces a shutdown if a budget bill is not passed on 1 October.
'50 favourite flavours'"We have no interest in seeing a government shutdown," Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told a press conference on Thursday. "But we've got to address the spending problem."
House Republicans have already inserted a provision to strip funding from the 2010 healthcare law into their version of a bill to avert a government shutdown, due next Tuesday.
The Senate will strike out that proposal from its version of the bill. Mr Boehner would not confirm on Thursday whether his party would accept such a revision.
But analysts say Republicans seem to be backing away from a showdown over the government shutdown in case it backfires electorally.
On Thursday, the party instead brought its fight against President Barack Obama's healthcare law to the negotiations over the debt ceiling.
The White House and its Democratic allies have repudiated legislative attempts to target the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
They point out it has been the law of the land for three years and withstood a US Supreme Court challenge.
Republican House deputy leader Eric Cantor at Thursday's news conference that the debt ceiling bill would be put forward this week.
The National Review magazine reports that an outline of the proposal includes tax reform, cutting civil service pensions, an overhaul of financial regulations and more means-testing for benefits.
It will also reportedly demand approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, increased offshore oil drilling and a rollback of environmental regulations.
But Patty Murray, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate budget committee, told the New York Times: "This is not the time to throw in your 50 favourite flavours."
The debt ceiling is the pre-set limit Congress authorises the US Treasury to borrow in order to pay the country's bills.
The US Treasury has been using "creative accounting" to keep paying the nation's bills since the limit topped $16.7 trillion (￡10.4 trillion) back in May.
In a letter to Mr Boehner on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged Congress to "act immediately" and increase the debt ceiling.
He warned: "If we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history."
Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised 78 times, but it has become a sticking point between Mr Obama and Republicans in Congress in recent years.
Mr Obama has said he will not be forced into making concessions as he did during the 2011 debt crisis, when he accepted a $2.1 trillion spending cut over a decade.
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