The health care watch has been a nailbiter the last few weeks, with conflicting rumors about what proposal the Senate would bring forward, and whether it would include the public option. Now that progressives in the Senate have decided to stand tough and bring a public option with a state opt-out provision, Harry Reid's made a surprise hero of himself for not allowing Sen. Olympia Snowe to hold hostage the entire Senate in her demand for a trigger provision. The opt-out's an imperfect situation, and for Sen. Reid, it's a high-wire act with an uncertain number of votes in the Senate to match a clearer picture in the House. But it's a muscle-flex for progressives. Good news.
But it's a game changer. It brings unaccustomed new power to Governors to decide whether to opt-in their states, or opt-out and leave uninsured and underinsured citizens to fend for themselves, a situation which has left us with 47 million (1.3 M in NJ) uninsured.
Governor Corzine has been an outspoken supporter of the public option. He would not opt out of it, as the public option is a critical piece of making health reform sustainable and holding private health insurance companies accountable.
And Christie? Watch this. See if you can conclude anything else than Christie would opt New Jersey right out. From DailyKosTV:
I do not favor a public option. I think there are a lot of other things that we could do on health care reform, and not have a public option. That's not something I would favor nor do I think that would be something that would be good for the state of New Jersey, for the federal government to do.
