Support for public option grows in House, Senate

Senators offer state opt-out Pelosi says House has nearly enough votes

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 23, 2009

House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health-care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation's richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws.

Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, huddled with President Obama on Thursday, and lawmakers said Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) was increasingly leaning toward the idea of including a version of a public insurance option, albeit one that would allow states to opt out of such a system, in the chamber's bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants said Thursday that they are close to corralling the 218 votes they need to move forward with comprehensive legislation that would include a version of the public option prized by liberals as a fundamental pillar of reform. House leaders were still trying to defuse a number of lingering disputes, including a battle over abortion. But senior lawmakers said that major sections of the measure have been locked in and that a final bill could be made public as soon as Monday in preparation for debate before the full House early next month.

(Original here.)