The U.S. Senate introduced its version of health care reform Thursday night. Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that he expects the battle over health care reform will be a long one.

“We all know that this legislation is tremendously important,” Reid said at the news conference according to the New York Times. “Why? Because it saves lives, it saves money.”

Democrats will surely tout the deficit savings that the Congressional Budget Office said would be the result of passage. The bill would cost $849 billion over 10 years, reduce the deficit by $127 billion and cover 94 percent of the country’s population according to the Congressional Budget Office (pdf – embedded below).

President Barack Obama praised the introduction of the bill, including the savings.

“From day one, our goal has been to enact legislation that offers stability and security to those who have insurance and affordable coverage to those who don’t, and that lowers costs for families, businesses and governments across the country,” Obama said in a statement. “Majority Leader Reid, Chairmen Baucus and Dodd, and countless Senators have worked tirelessly to craft legislation that meets those principles.”

Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who sits on the two committees that passed the legislation through to the Senate floor, said the bill is “on the verge” of debate on the Senate floor “after decades of discussion.”

“Our goal is to control escalating costs, improve quality and extend coverage to those who do not have it now,” Bingaman said. “And we do this in a fiscally responsible way that will actually reduce our deficit by more than $100 billion over ten years.”

Senator Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in a statement to the New Mexico Independent that he is “impressed” with what he has seen of the bill so far and cited the deficit savings.

“I’m encouraged by the projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that show this bill would cut the budget deficit by $127 billion over the first 10 years and by as much as $650 billion in the second decade,” Udall said. “It also achieves the goal of covering more people by extending guaranteed coverage to more than 94% of Americans, including 31 million uninsured, which would make a big difference in New Mexico. I look forward to a thorough review of the merged Senate bill in the days and weeks to come.”

The U.S. House already passed a health care reform bill earlier this month, with New Mexico Congressmen Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan voting for the bill while Congressman Harry Teague voted against it.

The full text of the bill and the CBO letter to Reid are embedded below:

Senate Health Care Reform Bill

CBO Letter to Harry Reid on Health Care Reform