Baucus' plan would not go as far as other leading proposals to reduce the ranks of the uninsured. According to a preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would leave about 25 million people without insurance, compared with 17 million under the House version.
Nor was there much evidence that Baucus' alternative to the public-option provided for in legislation proposed by the House and by the Senate health committee - establishing nonprofit cooperatives - would work to compete with private insurers and bring costs under control.
"They seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country," the nonpartisan CBO concluded.
The Baucus legislation, like the other two health bills, was designed to largely preserve the current system of employment-based health coverage. Layered on top of that system, the legislation would create highly regulated, state-based insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, where millions of people who do not receive coverage from their employer or from the government would be able to shop for insurance.
These people would be able to select from a range of plans offered by private insurers, as well as one potentially offered by a member-owned cooperative.
Despite major concessions, the bill did not win the endorsement of a single Republican - not even Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the bipartisan group of six Finance Committee members who met for months to discuss the bill.
Snowe called the bill a "step in the right direction," but said she was still worried that it would be too costly to the government and consumers, and that it did not do enough to ensure a competitive insurance market.
Most other Republicans were far less charitable.
"This partisan proposal cuts Medicare by nearly a half-trillion dollars, and puts massive new tax burdens on families and small businesses, to create yet another thousand-page, trillion-dollar government program," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
"Only in Washington would anyone think that makes sense, especially in this economy."
Baucus' bill would substantially expand eligibility for Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor. Under all the Democratic bills, Medicaid would be opened to America's poorest residents, regardless of their family status. In some states, the program currently covers only poor children and their families.
