The US Senate is to vote on the final version of president Barack Obama's healthcare reform bill.
The bill, which aims to cover the 31 million Americans without health insurance, could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare for decades.
The Senate are due to vote at 7am Washington time (12 noon GMT). Even if they vote in favour, the bill will still have to be reconciled with a more expansive bill passed by the House of Representatives.
Obama said to the PBS TV channel: "Right now there are families who don't have health insurance and as a consequence of somebody getting sick in their family have been bankrupt."
Republicans say that the bill is expensive, authoritarian, and a threat to civil liberties.
