Personally, as someone who's interested in the welfare of the United States and its people, I couldn't give a flip about the "public option" (as far as I can see, the only thing that the "public option" supposedly provides is competition for the other insurance companies, and I think it makes more sense to deal with that via antitrust laws, though that is, admittedly, a more underminable approach), and I believe that healthcare reform without a requirement that everyone have some base level of health care is worthless.

I'd personally rather see single-payer with the assumption that everyone has a government-defined base level of coverage rather than wasting time verifying coverage, etc. I rather like the British system where that's the case and then those who want to can buy "enhanced" coverage if they want. But that's not going to happen, because the American public is afraid that they'll have to wait six months for that free hip replacement that they currently can't afford at all. But that's neither here nor there.