This recent article from The Hill has very high level of insight into the inner workings of Senate negotiations. It very clearly lays out some of the main problems Democratic legislators will face in passing a healthcare bill. Quoted at length below:
Public option: An issue that unites Republicans and divides Democrats on ideological grounds inevitably [...]

Senator Charles Schumer is very confident that if nothing else, Democrats will come together to pass something on healthcare. It was a struggle to see if the bill would even be introduced for debate. According to NY Daily News:
Democratic senators kept the bill alive over the weekend by voting unanimously to start the debate and [...]

Late last night, a little sooner than we had expected, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed his official plan for comprehensive healthcare reform. Our major concern has been whether or not the Democrats will have a coalition sufficient to block a Republican filibuster.
Senator Reid appears determined to address this uncertainty. According to an ABC News [...]

For over a month now, we have been extensively covering the progress of healthcare reform through the House and Senate. As this quote from the New York Times blog puts it:
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, hopes to finalize the Senate version of major health care legislation this week.
But don’t count the days. [...]

The only thing holding up healthcare debate in the Senate right now is a prolonged estimate from the CBO on the cost of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill. This means it could come to a vote as early as next week.
After the House bill passed by such a narrow margin (420-415) earlier this week, [...]

Don Dion, an important ETF commentator at thestreet.com, had a great piece (subscription required) with the same basic hypothesis that we have been advancing here for some time. He points out that the same healthcare ETFs that dipped when Obama was elected are making gains after the GOP won the Virginia and New Jersey [...]

Since May 21, we have been tracking a number of stocks in our own Stockpickr healthcare portfolio. We have an average return of roughly 10% as well as a 100% success rate.
Today we updated the portfolio to accommodate a pessimistic attitude towards the health insurance industry. We also added a couple solid biotech companies. Expect [...]