Amann made his prediction Friday before an appearance at an unrelated stop in the area to support a proposed new science and technology magnet high school.

A Democrat, Amann did not join other members of his party in pushing this session to pass some plan, on the heels of Massachusetts, to cover an estimated 400,000 people in Connecticut who lack health insurance. A combination of factors -- including an education plan by Gov. Jodi Rell that took away attention, and a false estimate of one plan's cost to taxpayers -- has complicated efforts toward passage of a truly universal plan.

Amann staked a position to the right of his party as the session began in January. Rather than try to pass universal care in one shot in just five months, he said, the legislature should start with insuring all children.

"I've never wavered on my kids" proposal, Amann said Friday. "It will happen this year."

Universal care fore adults? "It's going to take another year, maybe two," Amann said.

An estimated 66 percent of uninsured children in the state are Latino. Amann introduced a plan called Healthy Kids Connecticut. It set aside $360 million (half of it to be reimbursed by the federal government) to boost Spanish-language outreach to uninsured kids; expand school-based and community-based clinics; increase reimburseements to docotrs who treat poor children as well as to hospitals; and require hospitals to sign up uninsured newborns for the state HUSKY program at the time of birth.

The money for the program is in the budget heading for a final vote, Amann said. After the budget passes, the Healthy Kids plan would still require a separate vote by the legislature.