The nation’s battle over health care reform — taking place mostly in Congressional meeting rooms, these days — is largely paralyzed with anticipation as everyone waits for bipartisan legislation from the Senate Finance Committee. That legislation might give President Obama an uncomfortable choice: Back the bipartisan deal or back the deals by rank-and-file Democrats who want a bill that more closely reflects their liberal leanings.

Senate negotiators said Thursday they are close to finalizing a $1 trillion health-care reform bill that would be fully funded by tax increases, Medicare cuts and new penalties for employers that don’t offer health benefits. The Senate committee will consider financing and policy issues over the Fourth of July recess with the goal of producing a 10-year bill that doesn’t add to the national deficit shortly after Congress returns July 6.

the latest struggle of Senate leaders trying to craft health care reform is whether subsidizing millions of people to join a proposed government-sponsored health plan would speed the erosion of insurance provided by employers — which the senators want to preserve. Under his proposed Health Insurance Exchange, the public option would be “one option among multiple options,” Obama counters.

Dr. Westby Fisher predicts that every dollar cut from the federal health-care budget “will be one less to trickle down to the people receiving the care.” He says: “This is no surprise to me, but we must realize that everyone of us are having compromises to care imposed upon us when the pencil sharpeners come out and $400 billion are magically shaved from the health care delivery budget.”

AARP, the association that represents the interests of people who are 55 years old and older, won a round with Big Pharma over the weekend. The conversation between the association and the drug industry changed last month after drug makers said they would reduce health spending as part of the nation’s health care reform effort.

Lawmakers and lobbyists mobilized in Washington on Wednesday to nip in the bud a congressional proposal to tax employer-paid health care benefits. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana says tax exemptions on employer-paid benefits are unfair because rewards go to the rich.

Montana Sen. Max Baucus said Monday he relishes his role leading the nation’s efforts to reform its costly and sometimes inefficient health care system. “I’ve never attempted a challenge as great as this,” Baucus said during a press teleconference. “I can’t remember when I have done something with such great relish.”