The public option is the surest path to never having an NHS here.
Why? Because only the folks priced out of the private market will buy into it, making it unsustainable. Medicare's current problem is that roughly 70-80% of all medical costs for Americans are incurred during their final handful of months alive. Guess how old they are, on average? Medicare does not currently have the healthy people in the pool and so the risk is dramatically higher than anything in the private sector. There's a reason why, for all the Harry & Louise advertisements, the private insurance sector never talks about taking over the above 65 population. Private health insurers are not in the business of paying medical claims. They are in the business of collecting premiums.
Bernie's plan incrementally expands Medicare until it covers everyone, just as it was originally designed. But the public option will be loved by the private sector for when it inevitably fails they can say, "See. Single Payer will never work here."
bcnu,
Mikem
It's mourning in America again.