President Obama's new health care plan offers some good news to state lawmakers fretting about the state's budget deficit. Under the compromised proposal released today, the federal government would cover, for three years, 100 percent of the funding required to care for any newly-eligible Medicaid participants once reforms are implemented in 2014. Between 2017 and 2019, the reimbursement would drop to 95 percent. It would remain at 90 percent beginning in 2020.

The broader $950 billion package makes some modest improvements to the bill that passed the Senate in December. It boosts the subsidies available to low- and middle-income earners, increases the eligibility thresholds on the excise tax for high-cost insurance plans, and closes the Medicare "donut hole" entirely.  It retains the Senate bill’s state-based exchanges, and maintains a 2014 implementation date for most reforms.

Unfortunately, there is no employer mandate or public option.

One important procedural point: While outlining the plan this morning, White House advisers made crystal clear that Dems will pass their own fixes through reconciliation if Republican Senators attempts to block this measure via the filibuster.