**US President Barack Obama is to speak to doctors from around the country gathered at the White House, as part of his drive for healthcare reform.**It comes a day before the Senate Finance Committee is due to vote on its version of a health bill.
If passed, it must be combined with a second bill passed by another Senate committee before the full Senate votes on the legislation.
Analysts say Mr Obama faces a tough few weeks as he seeks progress on reform.
The doctors invited to the White House on Monday include at least one from every US state.
Health reformers have been trying for decades to set up a universal healthcare system in America.
The Senate Finance Committee’s bill will not include a government-run insurance option for people without employer-provided coverage, unlike other panels’ bills.
But it will mandate all Americans to get health insurance, and offer subsidies for the less well-off.
Tougher regulations
If the finance committee votes to approve the bill, it will be the first time that a healthcare reform bill has been passed by all five of the congressional committees with jurisdiction over healthcare.
The bill still needs to negotiate a number of congressional hurdles before it can become law, however.
Once the bill leaves the finance committee, it will be combined with the Senate health committee’s bill, and go before the full Senate for a vote.
If it passes the Senate, it will be combined with the House of Representatives’ version by a conference committee and go back before both houses for final approval.
All of the different versions of the bill are broadly similar in the scope of their reforms.
They would all toughen up regulations on health insurers, mandate all Americans to get insurance, offer subsidies to the less well-off and set up health insurance exchanges for people without employer-sponsored coverage, to help them choose between different options.
Lawmakers are divided, however, over whether people with access to the exchanges should be allowed to choose a new state-run scheme - the so-called “public option”.
All three house committees supported the proposal, as did the other Senate committee with jurisdiction, the health committee.
But moderate Democrats and Republicans are opposed to the public option, and joined together in the finance committee to block amendments to include it in the bill.
Centrist Democrats are attempting to come up with a compromise proposal, and some form of public option could still be included in the final Senate bill.