Rachel Maddow just mentioned this as breaking news on her show so I found one article on this. Rachel was discussing this with Senator Sanders from Vermont and he said that breaking down the legislation into two parts, one that could face filibuster and one that would pass by reconciliation, was definitely under discussion by the Dem leadership. The insurance reform part would face the filibuster vote while the public plan part would go through reconciliation, but the WSJ article says that is still up in the air.
The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes.
And on reconciliation and the public plan:
In recent days, Democratic leaders have concluded they can pack more of their health overhaul plans under this procedure, congressional aides said. They might even be able to include a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers, a key demand of the party's liberal wing, but that remains uncertain.
And the part that would ostensibly face filibuster:
Other parts of the Democratic plan would be put to a separate vote in the Senate, including the requirement that Americans have health insurance. It also would set new rules for insurers, such as requiring they accept anyone, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.
http://online.wsj.com/...
We are going to win this. The momentum has shifted.
We need to keep the discussion focused on the older Americans who are literally dying while waiting for Medicare to kick in, an outrageous indignity for people that have worked their entire lives in America.