Both the Associated Press and the New York Times are reporting Democrats have dropped the public option in the tentative deal. Updated at 9:54 p.m., the New York Times reports:
“The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on Tuesday night that he had reached “a broad agreement” among a group of 10 Democrats who have been working to resolve the dispute over a proposed government-run insurance plan that has posed perhaps the biggest obstacle to major health care legislation.”
1. In sacrificing the government-run health care program, Democrats have tentatively settled on a private insurance arrangement modeled after the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. It would be supervised by the Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency that oversees the system from which lawmakers purchase coverage.
2. The option to purchase Medicare would also be extended to those uninsured between age 55 and 64 (instead of over 65).
All information was provided by anonymous sources because they were not authorized to discuss the tentative deal publicly.
