It's not a public plan, it's administered, in fact, by private insurers, but since members of congress and federal employees have access to the federal health insurance options, the rest of the country should too.

It is, indeed, gold plated care.  The government picks up 2/3rds of the premiums and there's a range of choices with various deductibles and co-pays.  The big thing, though is that the government picks up 2/3rds of the premiums.  Self employed workers and employees of small companies would benefit greatly from being able to join the congressional plans.  For poorer people who can't afford to pay 1/3rd premiums, we could have bigger subsidies, including enrolling people for free.

As for employees of larger companies (and some smaller ones) who get a better deal than our congressional reps -- well, they'll keep their current plans.  One added benefit of this is that private insurers will have a tough time cutting services or raising premiums because people will always be able to walk and pick the fed plan.

This isn't ideal. But it's a solution.  If there's no public option at all, we should at least do something to stop members of Congress from taking advantage of a better deal than most people get.

Frankly, I think that with a strong public option we could get better than congressional care to everyone in America. But what congress has now should be considered the absolute minimum in this debate.