WASHINGTON - The resurrection of the public option is the latest and one of the most surprising turns in the long battle over legislation to overhaul the nation's health care system. Under assault for months, the provision for a public insurance option is unexpectedly alive as House and Senate leaders prepare to send their bills to the floor.

That doesn't mean it's a done deal. Whether it survives the final battles, and in what form, are still the unanswerable questions. Multiple versions of a public option provision are on the table. Liberal and moderate-conservative Democrats are still at odds and drawing lines in the sand in hopes of exercising maximum influence on the outcome.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are still scratching for the votes to pass bills with some kind of public option included. But by next week, both hope to have bills ready either for unveiling or to send to the Congressional Budget Office for analysis and scoring.