Last week, Sen. Max Baucus and the Senate Fiance Committee finally produced their long-awaited version of the health care reform bill. The introduction of this bill brings us closer than we've ever been to passing comprehensive health care reform. But, there is still a lot of work ahead.

Democrats and Republicans on the committee have introduced over 500 amendments to the bill. This week, they will vote on which ones to keep and which to toss out, so it's still too early to tell what the final bill will look like. Even though some of the amendments are more symbolic than serious (such as Sen. Orrin Hatch's proposal of additional relief from the 35% tax on high-end insurance plans for any state starting with the letter "U"), there are a lot of positive and negative changes being proposed. To help everyone better understand the types of amendments presented, the Center for American Progress put together a great list of helpful and harmful amendments that are being reviewed.

At SEIU, one of our main focuses is making sure that the final bill is affordable for working Americans and their families. Yesterday, Sen. Baucus introduced a number of amendments that focused on easing concerns about affordability, including and expansion of subsidies to help purchase insurance and a reduction of penalties for not buying insurance. Other Democratic Senators are also focusing on this issue, like Sen. Wyden, who proposed an amendment that would increase low-income subsidies to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

But, some Republican Senators are also hard at work on shepherding through their own amendments that would cut affordability and strip the bill of many other positive reforms. As we continue to monitor what's going on, we'll keep you posted with updates from Capitol Hill, as well as any actions you can take to make sure we pass real reform. Stay tuned!