Dem House Leadership Memo Reminds Members the Public Option is Popular

Good news on the healthcare front, as top Democrats in congress push to include the public option in a final healthcare bill.

Greg Sargent, Plumline:

In a sign that House Dem leaders remain committed to making a public option a part of health care reform, the leadership is urging members in a new polling memo to keep in mind that the public plan remains overwhelmingly popular despite weeks of attacks on it.

The memo — which will be distributed to members of Congress and others later this morning and was sent over by a leadership aide — is designed to arm Congressional Dems with ammo to beat back claims that the public option’s popularity has tanked.

“Coordinated attacks by Republicans and other opponents of health insurance reform have had little effect on the strong support for a public health insurance option,” the memo reads.

The memo -- which Sargent posted here -- includes a handy chart -- which you can view here. The short version is that the numbers given by leadership range from 77% to 57% in support of a public option, depending on the poll.

It's a good sign that Democrats are committed to getting a public option out of the House. If the Senate bill doesn't include one, then the debate moves to the conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate versions will be ironed out. The feeling I'm getting is that support for the public option is strong in the House, while Democratic opposition to it is weak in the Senate. If I'm right, then the Senate side of the committee probably won't put up much of a fight over it and the House provision will move on to the president.

Still, given the feckless leadership of Harry Reid in the Senate, it's not a 100% lock. There's always some way he could screw this thing up for the rest of us and I wouldn't bet against him trying it.