The Public Option is Terminal

Looks like there's little or no chance a public option health plan will make it past the Senate:

Momentum behind a new government-run health care plan appeared to slow considerably Sunday, as a lead Democratic negotiator called the option a "wasted effort" and President Obama's health secretary suggested the White House is ready to accept a health care reform package without it.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of six negotiators trying to hammer out a bipartisan compromise measure on the Senate Finance Committee, told "FOX News Sunday" that the so-called public option simply does not have the votes to pass.

"The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been," he said. "So to continue to chase that rabbit I think is just a wasted effort."

Conrad and other negotiators on the finance committee are instead pushing a system of nonprofit insurance cooperatives, as an alternative to the public plan.

"Co-ops are very prevalent in our society," Conrad said. "They've been a very successful business model."

Yeah, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Look how well those worked out.

Kent Conrad is up for reelection next year and he comes from a fairly red state. I have a feeling he's hearing from North Dakotans who don't much care for Obamacare.

Should the public option die in the Senate the whole health bill will be imperilled because the liberals in the House have vowed not to support any bill that doesn't have a "robust" private option. There's always the risk that the conference committee will put it back in, but that would just set-up a filibuster in the Senate and hopefully nothing would get passed.