This just in from U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. Thought I'd share in case anyone's interested in voicing an opinion.

[Dear So and So,]

The tide is shifting our way.

You joined over 100,000 Americans to support a public option at CitizensForAPublicOption.com. Thanks to the tireless efforts of activists like you we've seen a tremendous shift in the health care reform debate. On Monday, Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced the merged Senate health care bill -- a bill that includes a public option.

The question is no longer if we will have some sort of public option in the final health care reform bill, but instead what form it will take.

There are several interpretations of what a public option should look like, and I'd like to share the preferences of the American people with my colleagues in the Senate. But I must do so before the final health care reform bill comes to a vote on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

Please rank your preferences for what form the public option should take in the final bill at: 

http://ga3.org/dickdurbin/po_poll.html?member_key=esiuu3599j3e56wk&source=popoll

I believe that a robust public option must give more Americans more choice on day one. But some of my colleagues would be content with a public plan that only kicked in if insurance companies continued to raise premiums at an unreasonable rate -- the so-called "trigger." Others would prefer a more limited public option, requiring state governments to "opt-in" to participate in the program.

I am "whip counting" the votes in favor of all of these in the Senate, and we're very, very close to reaching the 60 votes we need to pass a robust form of the public option -- one that provides more coverage to more people by requiring states to "opt out" if they don't want to participate. That's exactly how Medicare and Medicaid work, and all 50 states participate in those popular programs.

Ultimately my colleagues need to know what their constituents think a robust "public option" really means -- and what it doesn't.

Read up on the various interpretations of a public option now under consideration, and tell me -- and my colleagues -- where you stand. 

http://ga3.org/dickdurbin/po_poll.html?member_key=esiuu3599j3e56wk&source=popoll

Virtually every poll now shows most people support a robust public option to expand health insurance choice and offer coverage to more Americans. And the American people will not settle for a "public option" in name only.

Neither will I.

Let's tell Congress what precisely we want and expect to see in the final health care reform bill that President Obama signs into law.

Thank you for taking my poll. 

Sincerely,
Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator

[Revised link from email to accomodate blog]