Eyes are on the Senate Finance Committee this morning as Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., prepares to release the group’s long-awaited health overhaul bill. It’s the last bill to be released of the five House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over health, but it could be one more day yet: Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown reports that tomorrow is likely to be the big day because a 5 p.m. Tuesday call with governors could delay its unveiling.

John Goodman takes a look at the framework of the bill released last week and concludes it’s “a tax-hiking helping of previously discredited, warmed over ideas. Its 18 pages contain precisely one very good idea: Allow states to form one or more compacts to facilitate the interstate sale of health insurance.”

Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky zeroes in on the bill’s Medicaid expansion following Baucus’ comment the provision under his bill will cost less for states  than other proposed legislation.  Baucus said: “states are going to be pleasantly surprised. There is going to be some additional cost but much less than they originally expected.”  Volsky created a table to illustrate differences between Medicaid provisions in the House Tri-Committee bill and Baucus’ framework.

Subsidies to purchase health insurance are another key component of Baucus’ framework still under negotiation.  The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn returns to subject and to ask  if the subsidies will be enough: “The bottom line here depends, in part, on which people you consider–in particular, whether you’re looking at the poor or middle class, and whether you’re looking at the relatively sick or the relatively healthy.”  According to Cohn, it’s unclear how families with major health expenses would fare, in part because, “The committee analysis (and mine) includes a ton of assumptions–chief among them, that the families are buying the ’silver’ option, the benchmark plan on which federal subsidies are based.”

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein jumps off Cohn’s post to argue, “But it’s worth comparing this with a national system like that in Canada or Britain or France, or even the national system that our own seniors enjoy: In those cases, an awful illness stands no chance of bankrupting a family or consuming 30 percent of its income. The reforms under consideration make our system somewhat better. Maybe even a lot better. But they don’t make it good enough.”

Meanwhile, over in the other chamber of the legislative branch, the House Education and Labor Committee posted an interactive graphic that seeks to explain how health reform would work:
(Via Maggie Mahar.)

However, James Capretta on Critical Condition thinks the House bill, explained above, is “dead” following Obama’s comment that he would oppose any bill that added “one dime” to the budget deficit. Capretta critiques two approaches on the table — a tax on health insurance premiums over a certain dollar amount and a “trigger” provision to delay implementaton of a public plan option.

And Heritage’s Conn Carroll is looking past legislative details and onto the rest of the legislative schedule:

The name of the game is “keepaway.” Keep Congress in Washington and away from the folks back home. It’s a key strategy for Congress’ liberal leadership, which has announced the new fall schedule for meetings and votes on Capitol Hill. The original official plan was to adjourn by Oct. 30. Now the target is Thanksgiving but the expectation is Christmas, with maybe a one-week break somewhere along the way.

By keeping Congress in session and away from angry voters, leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi hope to plead, pressure and cajole enough votes to enact a massive health care bill. There’s less competition and interference from everyday people when elected officials are in Fortress Washington.