I'm not sure thatpeople really understand how the "public option" would work, given the rhetoric of the adminstration that people could "keep" their current insurance if they want to or choose a public option. 

Last night on The Daily Show, Secretary Sebelius, in response to a question, made things a bit clearer regarding just how the public option would work.  She was asked "who would choose" whether or not to use the public option: the employee or the employer?  The Secretary said essentially it would be the choice of the employer because if the employer provides health insurance then that is the insurance the employee would have to use.  Only if the employer chose not to provide health insurance would the employee be able to enroll in the public option.

Most of the people I know that have employer provided health insurance are glad they have insurance as opposed to not having it, but they hate the plans they have because the expense is totally unreasonable and with each passing year, less and less coverage is provided while costs go up.  So, leaving the choice to employers is not the same as providing choice to citizens at all.

It may well be that many employers, particularly small businesses and organizations would choose to reduce their out of pocket costs by making a contribution to the public option pool of funds thus allowing their employees to choose the public option.  But unless there is a virtual stampede by employers for the public option and one's employer made that choice, employees would have,at least as Sebelius explained it, no real choice at all.  If there's going to be a public option at all it seems to me it ought to be a real choice for every American and that this set up is designed to protect the interests of the insurance industry as opposed to the pocketbooks of families and businesses or the health of our people.  It's the sort of "compromise" that would only be made by someone who knows they'll never have to worry about healthcare for themselves or their families, but they are perfectly willing to "compromise" when the negative effects are only felt by the little people.

While the idea of a public option is better than nothing, the more I learn about the public option the more it seems like a poor substitute for doing what should have been done decades ago, and what we still need to do now, which is to establish some form of single payer health care system.  It is the most efficient, easiest to implement, and most beneficial to the people, the businesses and the health of the US population.