Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) appeared on MSNBC this morning and declared -- not for the first time -- that a public health insurance option tied to Medicare-levels of reimbursement would be bad for states like his. Not just bad -- but "a disaster," Conrad said.

That's because North Dakota has the country's second-lowest Medicare reimbursement level, Conrad said.

"My state would be very adversely affected by public option tied to Medicare-levels of reimbursement," he said. "That's great for New York, California, Flordia. It's very bad for low-reimbursement states like mine."

The answer, Conrad said, (again not for the first time), is "a cooperative plan" and not a "government-run plan."