Collective Conscious

The Reid com­pos­ite health bill released today:

Would cre­ate a new government-​​run insur­ance plan, or pub­lic option, to com­pete with pri­vate insur­ers, but would allow states to opt out of participating.

If this is what came out of con­sul­ta­tions with a fairly cen­trist work­ing group, then I’m extremely enthu­si­as­tic for its chances on the Sen­ate floor. I don’t doubt that the bill will face more changes as it pro­ceeds, but the opt–out plan, rather than an opt-​​in or a trig­ger, is a pretty pro­gres­sive pro­vi­sion com­pared to what came out of, say, Bau­cus’ Finance Com­mit­tee. Com­bined with the fact that he’s more or less van­ished from the media’s list of hold­outs — now lim­ited to Blanche Lin­coln, Mary Lan­drieu, and Ben Nel­son, a decent pub­lic option may just be in the cards for passage.

More bill high­lights at CQ.