What I don’t understand is—why not leave the decision of the "public option" up to the people and businesses that might want to have it?
So far we’ve heard mostly from the screaming right who are opposed to a public option. But the public option should be like any other choice, such as, say, whether or not to take cream in your coffee. If you don’t like cream, don’t use it. There’s no call to campaign against it, in fact you’re only going to make yourself look like a jerk nimrod if you do.
I say write a bill that provides for a public option if there is a demand for one, and also include mechanisms for paying for it. (Easily done if businesses convert what they are paying through the nose in private insurer premiums.) Then all the rightwing arguments would be undercut. If you are opposed to a public option, then don’t avail yourself of it, but don’t deny it to others who do want it. What could be more American that letting the people decide for themselves what they want, instead of some GOP/insurance industry bureaucrat?