Health care proposal mandates coverage, drops public option

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled a summary of the legislation after months of contentious negotiations conducted against the backdrop of often heated town hall forums across the country.

The proposal would cost $774 billion over 10 years while reducing the federal deficit by $49 billion in that period, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Baucus, a Montana Democrat, put the price tag at $856 billion. Finance Committee aides attributed the different totals to accounting methods rather than any variation in the final overall costs.

The plan would require all Americans to have health insurance, but lacks a government-run public health insurance option favored by most Democrats and President Obama. The CBO review estimated the proposal would leave 25 million people uninsured by 2019 — about a third of them illegal immigrants — compared to 46 million people currently without health coverage.