Health Care's 'Public Option' Would Cover Little of Population

A proposed government-run health insurance program, among the most divisive issues in the health care debate, would cover less than 1.5 percent of the population, new estimates show.

The latest version of the "public option," included in the 10-year, $848 billion health care bill headed toward an initial Senate vote Saturday, would cover up to four million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office report released late Wednesday night.

The issue remains among those that have prevented Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from securing the 60 votes he needs to pass the bill.

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Paul Ginsburg, an economist with the Center for Studying Health System Change, questions the impact the public option proposals would have on families seeking health coverage.

"The type of public option we're talking about today ... is all about ideology and symbolism," he said. "It's not going to have any impact on our health system."

Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a weekend vote to determine whether the Senate will begin debate on its health care plan, which includes a public insurance program that individual states could choose not to offer residents.

The public plan was conceived as a separate insurance policy that would operate like Medicare, the government-run health program for seniors. President Obama has said a public option would "keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable."

Under the House and Senate bills, the government option would be available only to people who shop for insurance on their own — meaning they don't get coverage through work — or who work for small firms. The plan would be offered alongside private policies in online "exchanges" that would let people compare coverage and prices.

Like private insurers, the public plan's funding would come from premiums, but Republicans and some Democrats, including Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, say its non-profit status would give it an unfair advantage. "A government plan is eventually going to crowd out the private insurance companies' plans," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.