The public option is the best of both worlds because it is an OPTION.
Friends, a cooperative healthcare device is the public option just with a better poll tested name...
But if the public option dies, some kind of health-care reform is more likely to survive.
The deal was intended to address concerns by some centrist Democrats over the public option.
Republicans reject the concept, saying the public option would drive private insurers out of the market.
While he became a strong proponent for universal coverage, for example, he remained ambivalent about the public option.
It is about differences in ideology on the public option and abortion that has slowed down the bill.
Conservative blogger Erick Erickson, of Red State, starts mobilising against the Democrats' proposed alternative to the public option.
There were conflicting reports about whether the deal jettisons the public option altogether.
The biggest advance came late on December 8th, when news surfaced of a breakthrough deal on the public option.
The Health Committee included a form of the public option in its bill, while the Finance Committee did not.
Conservative Democrats may soon hear more from liberals and progressives angry about the idea of dropping the public option.
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If the public option, even with an opt-out, loses Olympia Snowe and Joseph Lieberman, aren't you back to square one?
Reid, in turn, said he was "disappointed that the one issue, the public option, has been something that's frightened" Snowe.
Joe Lieberman (I-CT) last year demanded that the public option be stripped from the health care bill before he would vote for it.
Maine's 2003 reform plan, Dirigo Health, included a government insurance option resembling the public option included in the House health-care bill.
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But that doesn't mean we should force every member of Congress, especially those who oppose it, to take the public option.
Most Democrats support the public option as a nonprofit competitor to private insurers that would expand coverage and bring down prices.
His statement differed from comments by some other Democratic leaders, who call the public option essential for any health care legislation.
"The fact that they removed the public option was very important to me and, I think, a lot of other senators here, " he said.
Democrats reject that claim, saying the public option would be one choice for consumers who could decide instead to select private coverage.
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Would you expect that the public option would deviate significantly from those?
Even some senators who support the public option oppose its revival.
"The public option would make health care affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices and keeping the insurance companies honest, " he said.
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But, the public option isn't the main part of the bill, and it's not the hill that health coverage reform should die on.
Because Senator Feingold said that the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle.
And once he lays out his goals, he can make it clear that the public option is not the only way to get there.
Snowe is skeptical of the public option and has been trying to negotiate an alternative with the White House and colleagues on the Finance Committee.
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Whether the public option will remain in the mix is unclear.
If those rumours are to be believed, the Senate panel has all but killed the public option, though Mr Reid downplayed this as mere sidelining.
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