Since the major issues on the table (shape of public plan, how to raise $1 trillion to pay for reform) are still under discussion, here are some interesting tidbits from the 615-page Senate HELP committee health care reform bill released yesterday. The bill would:

• Expand Medicaid as one path to covering the uninsured. People earning up to 150 percent of the poverty level will be eligible to join Medicaid independent of other elements in the program;
• Establishes states as the "gateways" to health insurance; in other words, each state will have its own exchange where individuals and employers can purchase insurance;
• Require every insurer registered with a gateway to offer preventive clinical services rated either "A" or "B" by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force;
• Require state gateways to respond to consumer complaints and collect and analyze information about plan behavior;
• Avoid adverse selection (where plans avoid insuring the sickest and therefore more costly individuals) by having each gateway assess the actuarial risk of every plan in its pool, and levy fees that have low actuarial risk to offset the higher costs in plans with higher actuarial risk;
• Expand funding for federally-funded health centers from $3 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2015;
• Expand the National Health Service Corps (see this post from yesterday) from $320 million to $1.2 billion in 2015;
• Give grants to organizations that create patient decision-making aids, and make them available to patients and doctors confronted with "preference sensitive" medical decisions;
• Create a Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation to conduct comparative effectiveness research. It would be run by a 19-member board that included representatives of consumers, practicing physicians, nurses and other health professionals, employers, public payers, insurance plans, and clinical researchers who conduct research on behalf of pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, personalized medicine and health disparities;
• Establish a $10 billion-a-year Prevention Fund that would give states grants to set up "Right Choices" programs; and 
• Require chain restaurants and vending machine firms to prominently post calorie labeling on menus and on the machines.

There's also a still-to-be-determined section that would lower the cost of biotechnology-derived drugs, either through enabling the FDA approval and sale of bio-generics or giving public programs discounts on bio-pharmaceuticals that have already passed their patent expiration dates.