When Barack Obama was on the campaign trail, reforming US healthcare was presented as his top priority. That continues to hold good - Peter Orszag, the US president's powerful budget director, says he now spends "between half and two-thirds" of his time on the subject.
But the content of Mr Obama's healthcare package might not end up quite the same as that which he presented on the hustings. In contrast to Bill Clinton, who cooked up a 1,342-page reform plan and then presented it to the Democratic Congress (which promptly rejected it), Mr Obama is giving his colleagues on Capitol Hill the privilege of doing it themselves.
