Other than the 2013 start date, I really like the looks of this. Jonathan Cohn lists the positives:
●Generous subisidies, available to people making up to 400 percent of the poverty line
●Expansion of Medicaid to cover people making less than 133 percent of the poverty line
●Guarantees of solid benefits for everybody, with limits on out-of-pocket spending
●Strong regulation of insurers, including requirements that insurers provide insurance to people with pre-existing conditions without higher rates
●An individual mandate, so that everybody (or what passes for everybody in these discussions) gets into the system and assumes some financial responsibility
●A public plan, one that appears to be strong, although I'll reserve judgment on that until I hear from the experts
●Choice of public and private plan, at first just for individuals and small businesses, but later for larger businesses and--possibly--eventually for everybody
●Efforts at payment reform, if not necessarily as strong as they could be
●Investment in primary care and prevention, which is not sexy but potentially important for general health.
As dday points out, this plan is self-financing, so any nonsense about "taxpayers being forced to pay for things they don't believe in" (in my case, paying for John Ensign's Viagra) must be ignored. Premiums will pay for this, so if you don't like what it covers, don't buy it.
Let's hope as much of this remains intact when and if it gets to conference. The Senate version is bound to water it down a bit.