GW Discourse

Rep. Anthony Weiner, an advocate of the public option. Photo courtesy Talking Points Memo.

Health care reform may have just reached a major breakthrough—or not. Only time will tell if the so-called “public option opt out” will mend the irreconcilable differences some members of Congress have over reform. The opt out would basically allow states to discontinue the public option if they wanted to, down the road of course.

Advocates of the public option like Senator Rockefeller and Representative Weiner seem on board with the opt out, as well as moderate Democrats like Bill Nelson (D-NE). He told Talking Points Memo:

While there’s support for public option generally, generically, when you start talking about it specifically as it relates to states being able to opt out or opt in, have their own, the support overwhelmingly goes up to 76 percent.

The opt out caters to both liberals and conservatives. The former likes that the public option opt out would be essentially the same as a public option, and the latter likes the autonomy it gives statehouses to choose their path. Time will tell if the opt out makes its way into final version of health care reform or not. What’s in a name anyways?