'Public option' backers gain momentum

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Prospects for a U.S. government-run "public option" health insurance plan have brightened considerably in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Momentum has shifted significantly, so much so that many members of Congress are now predicting that when President Barack Obama signs a healthcare reform measure, it will contain provisions for some type of government-sponsored plan for Americans who don't receive coverage from their workplaces, the newspaper said.

It reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Friday were both lining up support for expansive versions of the public option, which emerged months ago as a volatile flash point in Democrats' health reform efforts as opponents at August town hall meetings decried it as socialized medicine and predicted it would lead to rationing.

But that has changed dramatically, even after the Senate Finance Committee rejected two versions of the public option in its reform bill, the Post said.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said that since the talk of "death panels" at the meetings, the political climate has changed as voters now understand "that all of this foolishness was just that -- foolishness. Nobody wants to pull the plug on Grandma."