Affordability was the word of the day during the Senate Finance Committee's first markup session yesterday. In order to prepare for today's voting, committee members made their opening statements and reviewed the Chairman's Mark presented by Sen. Baucus.

In hopes of calming Democrats' (and some Republicans') concerns over affordability, Baucus' Mark includes a number of edits to the bill that would ultimately provide coverage to 36 million more people. The modifications include: an increase in health care tax credits, a reduction in out-of-pocket costs, a lower threshold for families to receive tax credits instead of employer-sponsored insurance, an increase in the threshold for insurance companies to be subject to excise taxes for their more expensive plans and lower penalties on individuals that do not purchase coverage.

"My modification to the chairman's mark focuses on making health care more affordable for middle class families, while ensuring the legislation reduces the deficit and effectively slows the growth of skyrocketing health care costs," Baucus said.

With the Mark as their jumping off point, the Democrats on the committee used their opening statements to reassert the need for even more affordability provisions and other changes that would make the final legislation better for the American people. Sen. Schumer said it best when he noted that the bill "must be improved in the committee, on the floor and as we move to conference."

Today the committee moves into actual voting and things are bound to get more heated with both sides vying to make significant amendments to the bill. As the fight continues, we'll be right here to provide you with the latest updates from Capitol Hill.