I'll concede that there will be insurance company lobbying in the event of an opt-out public option. But the insurance companies won't stop spending money until they've killed the public option in whatever form, or they sense that it's established itself and further lobbying is futile. I think Nelson would rather push back the decision point until there are more Republicans in the Senate, but maybe that's just me.

My sense of it is that there are enough states - big, populous states - to give the public option the critical mass it requires to survive competition with the established insurance companies, even without the public insurer doing things like reflexive rejection of claims to stay profitable. I could be wrong, though, and I'd love to hear from TPM about how and why the opt-out is stronger than co-ops in this regard.

If i understood it correctly, Snowe's trigger was at the state level. Individual states get triggered in, and their public plan is only state-wide. So if my understanding was correct, Nelson's making no sense at all.

Nelson just wants to kill the public option. The trigger is the easiest way to do it.

I head he got a good jeering over the week-end at the Florida Democratic Conference. Every time he tried to speak, the place erupted in chants of "Public Option, Public Option".

I sent him a nice letter, that should be on his desk tomorrow, along with a stack of my unpaid medical bills. I said, "here, you pay them. My insurance company that you're trying so hard to protect won't, and I can't".

I'm embarrassed to be from Florida.

Between "Peter Principle" Crist and Bill "what should I do" Nelson, it's a wonder anything of any good gets done in the state.

I guess all of those old people have Nelson scared and afraid to do
anything for fear they may turn on him.

You also have to look at who produced Baucuscare -- the industry did.