Senate Democrats unveiled their health care bill [pdf, 2.5mb] 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.

It has been a long, arduous summer for Democrats pushing health care reform. Despite this summer's shouting campaign at town halls and President Obama’s falling approval rating – which recently dropped to 50% – the White House is expected to press on with more aggressive health care reform efforts. Politico.com reports that President Obama will lay out his specific demands for health care legislation as early as next week, when lawmakers return to Washington. Can Obama get a bill back on track to be passed this year? We speak with Politico reporter Alex Burns and Paul Starr, a senior health policy adviser in the Clinton White House and author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry.

President Obama is hitting the airways tonight to sell his health care reform plan. The Takaway's man in Washington, Todd Zwillich, gives us the behind the scenes report. We then turn to Paul Starr, professor of sociology and public policy at Princeton, to explain the history of presidential attempts to change the American health care system. Mr. Starr was a senior health policy adviser in the Clinton White House and is author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry.