A short while ago, Sen. Majority Leader Reid announced that the merged Senate healthcare bill will include an opt-out public option. This of course will receive the bulk of public attention moving forward, but there are other important things to flag. TPMDC reported that

In the next several hours, Reid will send the CBO a draft bill with alternative provisions on certain issues, to get a range of cost estimates on the plan he'll bring to the floor.

That range of estimates and provisions will likely include various levels of funding for insurance premium subsidies and Medicaid expansion -- two critical determinants of whether reform will make healthcare truly affordable for all. This morning USA Today reported that the Senate Finance bill would leave 17 million Americans uninsured because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid and make too little to afford insurance premiums. Once the Congressional Budget Office analysis of Reid's merged bill comes back, we'll see if the Senate leadership takes to heart the message from people of faith who came to Capitol Hill last week to call for Senate reform legislation to reflect the HELP Committee's affordability measures, not the Finance Committee's inadequate ones.