Liberals confident that public healthcare option will happen

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/64581-liberals-confident-that-public-healthcare-option-will-come-through

Hopes are running higher than ever for supporters of creating a government-run public option as part of healthcare reform.

The question is not settled and the healthcare reform project itself is far from guaranteed to succeed but liberals see mounting evidence that their position is going to prevail.

Supporters of the public option perceive a tide turning their way –and sweeping up previously reluctant Democrats. “I think people are sensing an inevitability that it’s going to be in the bill,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “There is momentum working here.”

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate still have key decisions left to make and liberals remain nervous that President Barack Obama’s interest in attracting Republican support for reform is stronger than his preference for the public option.

But mounting evidence suggests that it is no longer a question of whether healthcare reform will include a public Instead, it has become a question of what kind of public option there will be.

“I think there’s little doubt about it at this point. We’re definitely going to see a public option in both of those bills,” said Richard Kirsch, the national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now, a union-backed liberal activism group.

[TomCADem]

1. K & R