Congress.org - News : Okay, here's the House's health care bill

Okay, here's the House's health care bill

A limited public option is the key feature of Pelosi's bill

After weeks of negotations with her own party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to the Capitol steps today to unveil a 'final' version of the health care overhaul that will be considered next week.

The bill she introduced includes a 'public option' for government run insurance that would have the government negotiate reimbursement rates with health care providers. This represents a compromise to try and win over moderate Democrats because Pelosi had wanted to simply set the rates at Medicare levels. The public option has been the primary sticking point throughout the long discussions on the overhaul.

The cost of H.R. 3962? A preliminary estimate by the Congressional Budget Office pegs it at $894 billion over 10 years. You can read the bill, all 2,000 pages, here .

The Senate has yet to settle on its version of an overhaul, and it's not at all clear that Pelosi has the votes needed to pass her own bill.

Scott Montgomery, Congress.org