On Christmas Eve, the U.S. Senate passed a new healthcare reform bill that it says will help 30 million more people get health insurance. The Senate bill must be combined with a bill already passed by the House of Representatives and be signed by President Obama. A main difference between the two bills is that the Senate bill does not include a government-run insurance option, or “public option,” to compete with insurance companies. Both bills would give money to the poor to help them buy insurance and would require people who do not have health insurance to buy it.
