The end is nigh

And in 2010 we will no longer have to talk about the public option. The end is near; Senate Democrats have come up with what they hope is a fix for the controversial and politically charged public-option problem that has weighted down the healthcare reform debate for months.

The concession is to expand Medicare to patients as young as 55 years old, but it is not without controversy. Hospitals and doctors are up in arms about pouring more people into a nearly broken system that compensates providers at low rates they already deem unsustainable.

But the interesting thing is how unified the Democratic caucus suddenly appears. And for all the roughing-up Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has received, let's give him the credit for getting everyone in line. He assuaged the liberals by including a government health plan but then showed them it wasn't going to pass. Now he has brought the party's two factions together to forge a compromise and without even knowing details, the support is nearly unanimous.

"If there's 60 senators who can reach agreement, I'm for it," Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told The Washington Post.

"I don't know what the deal is," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said, adding, "But I think at the end of the day that we'll have 60 votes."

Finally, Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) told The New York Times, "Any big agreement is progress ... even if we do not know any of the details."

It is no surprise that the public option had to be dropped, but the surprise is that — as I mentioned in my column this week — Democrats of all stripes suddenly appear eager to compromise and get healthcare passed and off the table.


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