The U.S. House version of healthcare reform offers opportunity, choice, competition and innovation for Americans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

"Today we are laying the foundation for a brighter future for generation to come," Pelosi said unveiling the House's vision of healthcare reform. "It reflects our best values and addressed our greatest challenge."

She said the bill offers "affordability for our middle class" by reining in costs, "security for seniors" by strengthening Medicare and "responsibility to our children" by helping to reduce the deficit over a decade.

She said the plan, which stresses preventative and wellness care, would insure 36 million more U.S. citizens, meaning "96 percent of all Americans" would have quality, affordable healthcare.

She said the plan includes a public option that would "boost choice and competition in the health insurance arena." The public option, however, isn't as robust as liberals would have liked.

A preliminary estimate by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office indicates the measure comes in below the $900 billion, 10-year threshold President Obama outlined. The CBO was expected to release a harder estimate Thursday.

The proposal, which will be posted online in its entirety, "will end discrimination for pre-existing medical conditions ... (and) opens doors to quality medical care for those who were shut out for far too long," she said.

"This is an idea whose time has come," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said. "This is an idea that will lift up all Americans and give them affordable, quality healthcare that they can count on."

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., had another phrase for describing the measure announced today.

"It appears, for all the world, as a massive government insurance plan paid for by a freight train of massive taxes," Pence told CNN. "This is a massive bureaucracy."

Republicans were "digging" into the 2,000-page document, Pence said, adding, "This really is a government takeover of healthcare."