And it breathed it's last breath, or so they said.

The burly man from South Carolina drove the nail deep into the lid. He smiled at his handiwork and then, for good measure, he drove a final nail into the lid again. He and his friends looked at the dusty wooden coffin and gave their final goodbyes to their nemesis, The Public Option. That's when I woke to find that this vision or dream is only wishful thinking to some.

I read a small news story yesterday that said the White House was leaning against the Public Option. Why? What had gone wrong? The President had his big fish but totally lost control of it and it fell back into the river. He blew it. He had it by the tail and let the "big" one get away.

Is that how it's going to be remembered. In the future when Americans find themselves without health care or find themselves going bankrupt because a family member got cancer and they cannot afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in health care costs--they will just kick themselves. We had it in our grasp and President Obama, the right wing and moderate democrats let it get away.

The President had a choice...go out and present a bill for congress to debate or let congress debate and come up with a plan that he could help negotiate. He chose the latter but by doing that he also gave up control of the debate. Poison pills submitted by the Republicans and watered down amendments turned the tide against what could have been a beautiful thing.

The conservatives and ideologues on the right are afraid of the public option from a totally ideological viewpoint because they still live in fear of communism or socialists hiding in the dark ready to pounce and steal their wallet. Old fashioned thinking is dooming the prospects of moving into the 21st century.

The United States ranks near the bottom of the industrialized world when it comes to providing quality health care. We also rank near the bottom when it comes to life expectancy. What is the correlation of life expectancy and quality care? Right wing ideologues don't understand the correlation but let me explain.

If you take a look at mortality rates, it is a widely accepted that access to quality health care plays a role for the rate in each individual country. The ten countries with the highest mortality rate are mostly in African. The top 10 reasons for death are, and these are in order of highest to lowest:

1. 12.6% Ischaemic heart disease
2. 9.7% Cerebrovascular disease
3. 6.8% Lower respiratory infections
4. 4.9% HIV/AIDS
5. 4.8% Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
6. 3.2% Diarrhoeal diseases
7. 2.7% Tuberculosis
8. 2.2% Malaria
9. 2.2% Trachea/bronchus/lung cancers
10. 2.1% Road traffic accidents

What are the factors which lead to these results:

• Age of country's population
• Nutrition levels
• Standards of diet and housing
• Access to clean drinking water
• Hygiene levels
• Levels of infectious diseases
• Social factors such as conflicts and levels of violent crime
• Amount and quality of health care available

Notice the last factor relates to health care. However, if you look closely you will see that 6 of the 8 factors all relate to health care. Nutrition is part of health care, diet is part of health care, drinking water is part of health care, hygiene is part of health care, infectious diseases is also health care and of course the amount and quality of health care drives everything. The United States ranks 46th among industrial countries in life expectancy, many of the factors you see listed are relevant in this country.

Private insurers base their decisions on two things...profitability and actuary tables that measure risk. Keep in mind what insurance is based on; the shifting of risk from the consumer to the insurer. What they charge you is based on actuary tables and if they feel you are too high of a risk, they will turn you down. Thus, the need for a public option that will not turn down anyone.

The need for a public option or single payer government funded health care system is needed, otherwise those who really need coverage won't get it and guess who will pay their hospital or doctors bills? The Taxpayer.

Now the White House is considering scuttling the Public Option, even though a majority of American's favor one. Is this to get GOP votes? No, the GOP has already said it will not vote for any reform, even the co-op plan that was discussed earlier last month.

The reason for the scuttling is to appease centrist democrats, those "blue dogs", to get their vote in the Senate through reconciliation. The "blue dogs" are the obstructionists to final passage and if a bill does pass without the public option, then the liberal wing of the democratic party will work hard to unseat them in 2010 or run negative ads admonishing them for quashing the public option.

So, take out the nails of that coffin and give the Health Care Option some CPR -- but to let it die without a fight is a mistake that all of us will pay for, for a very long long time.

Tomorrow: The Stimulus: Success or Bust?