To read the Senate's health care reform bill, click here (warning: 2,074-page PDF file). For some analysis of the bill, see:*Reuters, which reports:
After weeks of closed-door talks to merge two Senate bills, Reid told Democrats the Congressional Budget Office pegged the plan's 10-year cost at $849 billion -- below President Barack Obama's $900 billion goal for his top domestic priority.
The CBO analysis also said the plan would reduce the deficit by $127 billion over 10 years and $650 billion in the second decade while extending coverage to 31 million more Americans, Democrats said, a rosy report card that could boost the bill's prospects in a sharply divided Senate.
The 2,074-page bill was applauded by Obama, who called it "another critical milestone" in the push for healthcare reform, and condemned by Republicans who said it was another costly government intrusion in the private healthcare sector.
*Jon Walker at FDL Action, who writes:
Unfortunately, the opt-out provision is an unlimited, pre-reform opt-out. This is one of the worst ways to design the opt-out. There is no restriction placed on when states can start opting out, and, presumably, this will allow states to start opting out right away. That means there will be a four year window after the bill is passed and before the public option is first made available. That is a huge window in which Republicans and health insurance lobbyists can work to opt a state out of the public option.*Also see Chris Bowers at OpenLeft, who writes that the "Senate opt-out public option won't start until 2014, and won't cover abortion procedures."
What are you seeing? Have you started reading the bill?
UPDATE: Jon Walker of FDL has more, basically that "Reid decided to keep the administrative structure of the HELP public option nearly unchanged" and that "the actual structure of the public option is stronger than I feared it might have been." Phew.
