The news yesterday was the Harry Reid would include a public option with an opt-out provision in the Senate bill. There has been some reporting Reid might not have the votes for the opt-out and might need to water it down to a public option “opt-in,” state-based public plans, or trigger. A public option opt-in [...]

I’m glad to see that Senate Majority Leader has decided to be a real leader and defy Olympia Snowe (R-ME). There is no reason to have a 60 member caucus if you are unable or unwilling to use it to fulfill the top priority of the Democratic party with the best reform bill possible. It [...]

Several news sources are reporting that Harry Reid plans to put a national public option with an opt-out provision in the merged Senate bill. So far, there have been almost zero details on how this national public option with an opt-out provision would be structured. I’m going to explain four important variables and how they [...]

ABC is reporting Reid is leaning towards putting a national, weak, “level playing field” public option with an opt-out provision in the merged bill. The move could be a result of real leadership, terror at the thought of losing his election, courage, profound personal conviction, incredible pressure from inside the caucus, necessity, or a combination of [...]

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told Poltico that he felt Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House were leaning toward a national public option with an opt-out: Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) briefed Nelson and other Democratic centrists on Thursday morning. “I keep hearing there is a lot of leaning toward some sort of national [...]

The Hill is reporting that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is looking very carefully at the public option opt-out “compromise”: “I think there’s one way that could work very well and could pick up some of the moderates,” Rockefeller told reporters. “I’m looking very much now at this opt-out public option.” Under the alternative proposal, the [...]

I choose that guy–make him pay! I’m not talking about who will pay in the political sense. I literally mean who is going to pay the billions of dollars it will cost to let red states opt out of the public option? We know from the CBO that a public option would save between $25-$110 [...]

A combined total of 154 million people (51% of the population) live in states where Republicans control the governor’s mansion or the state legislature.

If you don’t think the next four years will see a multi-million dollar surge in donations from health insurance companies to politicians at the state level, you don’t understand politics.

The biggest problem with the public option opt-out idea is that it would deny the public option to those people who need it most. Most of the states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents tend to be Republican states. The top ten states with the highest percentage of residents without health insurance in 2008 [...]