photo: Cosmic Smudge/ BY-NC-SA

According to the New York Times and NPR, in Washington D.C. on Tuesday Senate Majority leader Harry Reid announced that he was going to push for a public option in the senate’s version of health care reform bill. With a state opt out which would allow individual states to opt out of the public option. Public option would be designed to compete with private insures therefore reducing costs if the bill passes and some states opt out, people in those states would be forced to pay higher premiums also included in the heath care bill is a provision that requires all Americans who don’t get health insurance from an employer to buy heath insurance.

If they don’t the government would fine them. Having the state opt out does not make sense. It was just put in the bill to get blue dog democrats to vote for it. Why any state would opt out. Opting out would hurt the people of that state. The governor and legislature would probably not opt out cause restricting there constituents options and making them pay more for health insurance is horrible politics. It is still up in the air whether Reid can get the vote’s republican senator Olympia Snowe of Maine said she would not vote for any bill with a public option. She knows that if a bill with a public option passes that it will be in most if not all states