The Public Option: It's Baaaaaaaack!

In matters of public policy, it’s never wise to declare any question dead. The minute you begin to read the funeral rites, it will suddenly rise up out of its coffin, brush itself off, and demand a word with the minister. Thus, I should have known better to think that we were done with the public option. It was not dead. It was never dead. It was just resting quietly and pining for the fjords.

The Democratic National Committee has included the public option and Medicare buy-in as part of its 2016 party platform. This is obviously a sop to the Sanders wing of the party, which never got over its anger about the final shape of Obamacare. And while in general, I think that their demands are pipe dreams, it seems there is a reasonable chance that if Hillary Clinton is elected to the presidency, those people will finally see the dream of the public option made flesh.