Analysis: Public Option Might Play Only Minor Role In Changing Health Care - Kaiser Health News

By Eric Pianin, Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Appleby, KHN Staff Writers

For all the controversy over a government-run insurance option, the program outlined in health overhaul legislation likely would play a minuscule role in efforts to expand health care coverage, according to many health care experts and lawmakers.

Of the 30 million Americans likely to purchase insurance through exchanges created by the legislation, only six million -- or one fifth -- would enroll in a public insurance plan, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House bill. Viewing it another way, the six million using the public option would amount to only two percent of the 282 million Americans under the age of 65 who are projected to have health insurance by 2019, when the legislation is fully implemented.
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