With Monday's announcement from Majority Leader Reid that a public “opt-out” option will be included in the Senate bill to be brought to the floor, I’m increasingly hopeful that some type of meaningful health care reform will pass. As we’ve blogged before, our approach to national heath care reform includes strong support for a public plan. But acknowledging reality, I suspect the public option (if actually passed) will not be the silver bullet many people hope for. Lack of universal coverage is even more likely if the opt-out option is approved. What’s more, reform probably won’t be enacted until 2013. There are a lot of potential doctor’s appointments between now and then. However, looking at previous examples that mirror what is being proposed on the federal level, liberal health care critic and Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote yesterday that there is much to be admired in the model pioneered in Massachusetts. Krugman argues Massachusetts’s reform “has gone a long way toward achieving the goal of health insurance for all.” And even though “it’s not quite there” (it still doesn’t provide adequate coverage for the self-employed, for example), the initial reform bill has spurred a demand for further improvements and reform. Krugman cheers, “This thing is going to work.” We here at Freelancers Union couldn’t think of a more desirable outcome, and even if it doesn’t solve all our problems, we’re ready to keep working on it. To read the entire article click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/opinion/26krugman.html