New poll shows maority support public health care option

As health care continues to dominate the legislative session on the hill, a fascinating poll released by CBS and the New York Times shows almost overwhelming support for the most controversial issues surrounding the health care debate: a government-run health insurance option to compete with private companies.

By almost 2 - 1, the American public wants the government to step in, and as many as 57% of those surveyed said they would even pay higher taxes to fund it. This curious statistic hasn't stopped a major opposition campaign by health providers and Republicans to keep any public option out of congressional proposals.

Of the 3 bills currently being debated in congress right now and making their way through committee, two of them have the so called "public option." The House bill released on Friday, which received wide support from the White House, contains it. The bill currently being debated in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Ted Kennedy, but with his no. 2 Chris Dodd pinch hitting, also contains it. However, the bill making its way through the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Max Baucus, contains more compromises with Republicans and Conservative Democrats and doesn't contain it. Marrying the two bills in the Senate is crucial, and although the two chairmen have said that combining their two bills into a single vehicle will be seamless, it's becoming more apparent as time goes on that these two Senate committess are working on separate and conflicting tracks.

A further headache that all 3 bills are running into is how it's all going to be paid for. The public supports government-run care, but is also wary of growing budget deficits, and no plan pushed by either the white house or congress has a comprehensive revenue plan in place to fund what continues to be an astronomical figure that continues to climb as more and more work is done and more details are brought to light.