Public Option Shows Signs of Life

Not long ago, as attention centered on the Senate Finance Committee's moderate health- care reform bill, pundits dismissed the idea of a publicly run insurance program to compete with private insurers as all but dead. Now, as Senate leaders are close to merging that bill with a more liberal alternative passed earlier in the summer, the public option—a sort of Medicare for the masses—appears to be making a comeback.

In one sense, it's small surprise: While the Finance Committee explicitly rejected the public option, some version of the idea featured prominently in other major reform bills pending in the House and Senate. The Senate is expected to come up with its merged bill in the next week or so, and the House will deliver its own unified legislation soon after. Then the real jousting will begin.