Top Billing For Nancy

Speaker Pelosi has unveiled the House public option bill today, and it's pretty decent. Not the Medicare for all bill that she wanted, but it's better than the Senate version.

Pelosi said the bill will "insure 36 million more Americans" and "will not add one dime to the deficit" -- covering 96 percent of Americans and costing less than $900 billion. The bill includes a public option and will end "discrimination for preexisting medical conditions."

She said the plan will be put online "for all Americans to see." You can read it here.

Early in her remarks, there was some loud off-camera noise -- apparently from protesters nearby.

"Thank you, insurance companies of America," Pelosi said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was up next. "What a day for America, and what a day for all of our people," he said

The bill is expected to be debated on the House floor next week.

If implemented, by 2013, the bill would require a mandate for coverage and a health insurance exchange to be in place. There would, by this point, be new consumer protections, including an end to co-pays for routine checkups and preventative care, yearly caps on out-of-pocket expenses and an end to yearly and lifetime caps on what insurance companies will cover.

Young adults would also be able to stay on their parents' health care plans until their 27th birthdays.

Still digesting the full bill, the Cliffs notes version is here.

Jon Cohn's initial reactions are here, Ezra Klein's early take is here, both are worth looking at, both seem to think the bill is good on the surface.

The bill does pay for itself, mandate is somewhat more strict, but there are better subsidies to defray that. Comes in under the $900 billion mark as well. So far, it's a good bill.

[UPDATE 11:45 AM] Politico clocks the bill in at $894 billion.