The Senate Finance Committee rejected an amendment Tuesday that would have created a government-run health insurance plan. The committee voted 15 to 8 to reject an amendment proposed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV. Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, sought to add a public option called the Community Choice Health Plan.

Both Robert Reich and Paul Krugman have recently declared that Health care reform will make or break Barack Obama. They have both further argued that the only real reform must included a robust public health care plan. They offer very persuasive arguments. Which makes it very troubling to learn that Rahm Emanuel has been trying to do away with the public option.

While public health insurance program would be cheaper for America, we can't afford it. This is one of the most common protests to the proposed Public health are plan. Yet, polls (like the CBS/N. Y. Times poll) consistently find that most Americans (over 75% in fact) still favor a public health insurance plan.

Responding to criticism from health insurance companies, President Obama today told insurance industry “antagonists” not to fear his health care reform plans."If the free market’s so great, and the government’s so bad, insurance companies won’t have any trouble competing with a public health plan," Said the President.

We all know the facts now. 47 Million Americans have no health insurance, millions more are under insured, and even the fully insured are often denied coverage by their insurance company. We further know that Medical Bills are the leading cause of debt in the United States and, even worse, that they are responsible for nearly 2/3 of bankruptcies. This is why Obama, and others, have advocated a public plan. Oddly, however, today Barack Obama strongly suggested that the public plan is actually negotiable.

Democratic Senators MUST beware when making decisions on health insurance and health care reform. According to Chuck Todd, Americans will NOT feel that there is health care reform unless there is a public option in it. Also, like President Obama says, Americans do NOT want their health care benefits taxed.

Two new studies find the uninsured and people with certain types of public health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced cancer compared to those with private insurance. The studies, published in the July 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, find availability and type of health insurance predict disease severity in patients presenting with cancer of the oral cavity and breast in the United States.