This morning's CQ (link is subscription-only) brings about some depressing news--there will almost assuredly be no reconciliation attempts by the Senate Democratic leadership to keep the public option in the bill.
Senate Democrats have abandoned plans to use a fast-track parliamentary strategy to avert a threatened Republican filibuster and pass a health care overhaul — a signal that they are considering major policy concessions to moderates.
The most significant of these could be restructuring or dropping altogether a proposed government-run insurance plan — the so-called public option — that many liberals consider a necessary part of the overhaul.
According to the CQ article, Maj. Leader Reid met with pro-public option Senators on Monday, and in that meeting, made it fairly clear that he would not be using the reconciliation process to get a public option into the final bill, quoting Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA): "I’m not going to quote him, but suffice to say, after the meeting was over I thought it was unlikely."
With the likelihood of a robust public option in serious limbo, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) has floated a new potential compromise:
Reid, of Nevada, said last month the bill he will bring to the Senate floor will include a proposal to create a "public" insurance option, but states could opt out of the plan. He has allowed Carper to craft an alternative that could be offered if the original option seems unlikely to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, according to the Capitol Hill publication Congress Daily.
[...]
Congress Daily quoted Carper on Wednesday as saying the plan would allow states without affordable insurance to establish a nonprofit board to offer insurance.
The publication, quoting a senior Democratic aide, reported that "staffers have tried to keep Carper’s alternative quiet due to concerns that publicity could draw attacks from liberal activists."
The Carper alternative doesn't strike me as much of an alternative at all. The difference between allowing states who meet some kind of threshold whereby they may set up their own health care nonprofits, and a national public option with an opt-out clause is enormous. The default will be no public option, and thus in most states, little in the way of either wider coverage or meaningful competition among insurers that would benefit consumers.