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But Democratic lawmakers on Thursday made clear that there were still unbridgeable differences between the party’s centrist and progressive wings. In August a group of 60 Democratic lawmakers wrote to Mr Obama to say they would vote against a healthcare bill that excluded the public insurance option on which he had campaigned.

But centrist Democratic senators, including Ben Nelson, whose support will be essential, continued to say they would vote against a bill with a public option.

“I see two endings,” Mr Nelson told the Journal Star newspaper on Thursday. “One is we find areas we can agree upon and begin to do things incrementally taking more of an insurance approach, not a government approach. The other is that it [the bill] implodes.”

Meanwhile, Jan Schakowsky, a leading progressive Democratic lawmaker, said liberals were not prepared to climb down. “I will support nothing short of a robust public health insurance plan upon implementation – no triggers,” she said. “I believe Congress will pass and the president will sign such a bill.”

The dismissive reference to “triggers” would augur badly for plans to woo Olympia Snowe, the Republican senator for Maine, who has signalled that inclusion of a public option trigger would be enough to secure her support.

A public option trigger would specify that a public insurance plan could be created several years on if private insurers failed to meet the conditions of the re­forms. Rahm Emanuel, Mr Ob­ama’s chief of staff, and Ms Snowe were said to be “deep in conversations” on Thursday about the possible compromise.
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