Senate dems’ health bill unveiled

Senate Democrats unveiled their health care bill yesterday – a massive tome of more than two thousand pages that the non-partisan CBO estimates will cost $849 billion over ten years. That’s below the limit of $900 billion that President Obama set – and a figure that would actually decrease the deficit. Drafters of the bill patted themselves on the back during an evening press converence yesterday, breaking into laughter when Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) flahed the “V” for victory sign. But the wrangling and political horse-trading aren’t over yet, and that “V” may yet prove premature. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich says fights over abortion and the “public option” just aren’t going away. Paul Starr is a veteran of these kind of debates. He is currently a professor of sociology and public policy at Princeton University, and was a senior health policy advisor in the Clinton White House. He wrote the book “The Social Transformation of American Medicine.” Starr weighs in on whether the massive bill can slow the rise in health care spending or whether that goal is simply a pipe dream.