WASHINGTON—The drive to pass health care reform legislation in the House of Representatives is moving into high gear with the introduction of legislation Tuesday backed by the House Democratic leadership and committee action on the measure slated to begin as soon as Wednesday.

“This is an historic day,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who predicted at a news conference passage of the legislation prior to the August recess.

The measure unveiled Tuesday, H.R. 3200, includes a “play-or-pay” mandate on employers. The bill closely resembles one presented in June by the chairmen of three House committees—the Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means committees.

Under the proposal, employers would have to pay 72.5% of the premium for individual coverage and 65% of the premium for family coverage. In addition, health care plan enrollees with individual coverage could not be required to pay more than $5,000 per year in out-of-pocket expenses, while such expenses would be capped at $10,000 for enrollees with family coverage.

Preventive services would have to be covered without any employee cost-sharing. In addition, employers could not restrict coverage for new employees with pre-existing medical conditions.

Most employers that fail to meet these requirements would be hit with a penalty equal to 8% of pay for each employee they did not offer coverage.

However, employers with an annual payroll of $250,000 or less would be completely exempt from offering coverage or paying an assessment. For employers with more than $250,000 in annual payroll, the penalty would begin at 2% of payroll, rising to the full 8% penalty for employers with annual payrolls above $400,000.

Individuals who did not enroll in a health care plan, except those who could demonstrate financial hardship, would be hit with new taxes, based on their annual income.

The proposal, though, would provide federal health insurance premium subsidies for those with adjusted annual gross incomes of up to 400% of the federal level. It also would create state health insurance exchanges for individuals and small employers—which could shop for coverage offered by private insurers—as well as a new public plan. Eventually, the exchange would be available to large employers.

In addition, the proposal would reimburse—through a new federal reinsurance program—employers providing coverage for pre-Medicare eligible retirees at least age 55. Under that provision, employers would be reimbursed for 80% of the cost of a claim between $15,000 and $90,000.

The measure would be funded in part by a new graduated surcharge on annual income exceeding $350,000 a year. For example, the surcharge would be 1% for families earning between $350,000 and $500,000 and 1.5% for those earning between $500,000 and $1 million.

President Obama hailed the unveiling of the House Democrats’ bill as one that “will begin the process of fixing what’s broken about our health care system, reducing costs for all, building on what works and covering an estimated 97% of all Americans.”