Public Option Fight Still On

The good news and the bad news on the public option. First, the good news.

The Hill:

The point person for House liberals on healthcare says she trusts that President Barack Obama's support for a "public option" in the health reform bill remains strong.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus's healthcare task force, said she was reassured by the White House that the president isn't weakening his position.

"I take the administration at its word and the word is that nothing has changed," Schakowsky said.

Schakowsky cites a "question and answer" memo from the White House that said "nothing has changed" in the president's support for the public option, because he sees it as the "best way" to fix the system. This is contrary to the "White House dumping public option" headlines we saw over the weekend. Early today, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed the White House's support for a government run plan.

This is good news because, as I pointed out yesterday, the public option is as alive as President Obama and pro-reform Democrats want it to be.

Now the bad news.

NBC News:

The question of whether or not the eventual health-care reform legislation will include a public/government option to compete with private insurers has dominated the health-care debate over the past two days.

And according to a brand-new NBC News poll, 47% of Americans -- a plurality -- oppose the public plan, versus 43% who support it. That's a shift from last month's NBC/WSJ poll, when 46% said they backed it and 44% were opposed.

In a follow-up question explaining the benefits and disadvantages associated with a public plan, 45% said they agreed with the description -- by supporters -- that it would help lower health-care costs and provide coverage for uninsured Americans.

But 48% sided with opponents who say a public option would reduce access to their choice of doctors, and would lower costs by limiting medical treatment options.

If you want to put a positive spin on this, you can take comfort in the fact that the margin for error is 3.5%, so -- statistically speaking anyway -- this is really more of a tie. The public is split on the public option. The "shift" NBC talks about here falls within the margin of error, so a good argument could be made that this really represents no change. Finally, neither the pro- nor anti-reform side can claim a majority here, which means there's still unclaimed territory out there. That's probably more comforting than dicking around with margins of error anyway.

All in all, the news of the day is that the fight isn't over and the fight's not going to be easy. But the important thing is that it's most definitely not over. If you haven't contacted your Senators and Representative yet, now would be an excellent time to do so. Even if you know they're either a lost cause or a sure bet.