12 seconds ago 2009-12-04T11:30:03-08:00
The Senate Finance Committee approved a healthcare reform bill on Tuesday with the help of single Republican vote. But while this is a significant step in the reform process, the bill does not contain the "public option" preferred by the President and many Democrats and almost universally opposed by Republicans. There are however a total of five individual healthcare reform bills before Congress, some of which do contain a public option.
So will a public option be established before the end of the year? With lawmakers now short on time, strong ideological opposition from the right and the emergence of alternatives acceptable to the White House the Intrade market remains pessimistic, currently giving just a 17.1% probability of a public option passing into law before year-end.
