Majority Leader Harry Reid has introduced his health-care plan, which diverges from the House bill in some keys respects. For one, it’s actually longer, at 2,074 pages. And it doesn’t bar federal subsidy of abortion. Quite the opposite. And here is the key and possibly killer element:

Like the House bill, Reid’s proposal would be financed through billions of dollars in Medicare cuts, as well as new taxes. But while the House would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on income over $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for families, the Senate would rely primarily on a new tax on high-cost insurance policies that has been hugely unpopular among House members.

Specifically, it is hugely unpopular with Big Labor and anyone making less than $500,000 who has a so-called “Cadillac plan.”

In addition to all that, the Senate plan has a public option, already termed a no-go by Republicans, Sen. Joe Lieberman, and some other Red State Democrats. And yes, just as the House version, it will force people to buy insurance. Democrats are delighted because the CBO says it will “save” $127B over 10 years. But as others have pointed out, the “cost-curve” goes up and not down — the CBO says federal outlays for health care are increasing in the next two years. Moreover:

While Democrats will point to $127 billion in possible deficit reduction, that is made possible in part by delaying the benefits until the fifth year of the 10-year budget window. And even then, the $127 billion is LESS than the deficit that was already spent in October of this year. In other words, any possible savings over 10 years of this bill are already erased by the deficit spending of last month alone. And remember, CBO predicts that the 2019 deficit will be $722 billion. So their projected deficit reduction, as uncertain as it is, over the second 10 years won’t erase even the 10th year’s deficit.

And then there is the budgeting sleight of hand — delaying key outlays until 2014 in order to preserve the appearance of near-term budget sanity.

In short, as unpopular and monstrous as the House bill was, this is arguably going to be a tougher sell for moderate and conservative Democrats. Add to the list of opponents pro-life advocates and organized labor and you have a bill virtually no one will like. Except Harry Reid, who thinks it’s just swell. We’ll see what his colleagues think.