Reid: Health care bill to include public option

WASHINGTON - A Senate health care bill being crafted behind the scenes will include a government-run insurance program that would allow individual states to opt out of it, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday.  

The latest iteration of the "public option," which would require state governments to decide by 2014 whether to take part, is intended to soothe opposition to one of the most controversial provisions in the broader effort to revamp the nation's health care system.

"I think it's the fairest way to go," Reid said, adding that he has sent the proposal to the Congressional Budget Office to determine its cost. "It's something I believe all the national polls show a wide majority of Americans" support.

BACKGROUND: Congress' health care bills leave millions uninsured

Reid has been meeting privately with other Democratic leaders in recent weeks to merge an $829 billion, 10-year health care bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee with separate legislation passed by the health committee in July. The health committee bill includes a public option; the finance panel's proposal does not.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and other Republicans quickly criticized the decision. "No matter what you call it or how you dress it up, the Democrats' proposal is government-run insurance," Kyl said in a statement released minutes after Reid's announcement.

The decision to include a public option in the merged bill gives new momentum to an idea long favored by President Obama but that Republicans, including Kyl, have opposed. Some moderate Democrats, such as Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have also raised concerns about the idea.

"The President congratulates Senator Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd for their hard work on health insurance reform," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement Monday. "Thanks to their efforts, we're closer than we've ever been to solving this decades-old problem."

Gibbs said Obama is "also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out. As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition."

The government-run plan would compete with private insurers, which Obama has said would drive down health insurance costs. Opponents have argued that the program will have unfair advantage - government support - that will indirectly force millions into the program against their will.

Reid will need 60 votes to support the health care measure he brings to the floor because that is the number needed to overturn filibusters. Only one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, has voted for any of the health care proposals being considered in Congress.