The AP is reporting that the public option is dead.

Obama claims he did not campaign on the public option. Fooled me.

AP: The Democrats with Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in the lead have agreed to jettison the public option. People 55 to 64 would be able to buy into Medicare. But the public option is still not entirely gone.

The problem with shifting more people to Medicare is that many doctors refuse to treat Medicare patients because Medicare pays too little. I've encountered this problem myself. 

See the NYT story. Olympia Snowe is not happy. See the votes here.

Underwhelming

The AP reports that once PelosiCare's public option is full implemented only 6 percent of Americans under 65 will sign up for it. Then why have the Democrats made such a fuss about it?

Recent reports say that Harry Reid is reviving the public option. What is really going on? Reason has this summary.

Betsy's Page thinks it's just a political ploy: 

Reid got his announcement and one-day story in the media. The liberal bloggers are happy. But don't be so quick to assume that this was anything more than an appeasement of the left while Reid knows very well that he doesn't have the votes to pass what he's announcing that he'll introduce. In fact, if this plays out as expected, he'll introduce the public option and fail to get the votes and then he can tell the lefty bloggers that he tried, he really tried, but it was those darn moderates in his own caucus who blocked the public option. And he crosses his fingers that they don't realize how they've been played.