Is the Public Insurance Option Gone for Good?

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), speaking Sunday on Fox Sunday News, implied that very little wiggle room was found in the current Senate bill: "I think any bill is going to have to be very close to what the Senate has passed because we're still going to have to get 60 votes," Conrad said. "And anybody who's watched this process can see how challenging it has been to get 60 votes."

But Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, said on Tuesday that the issue most likely will be "revisited,"—such as legislation outside of the reform bill.

In his statement supporting the Senate's first procedural vote on the reform bill on Monday, President Barrack Obama seemed to prefer speaking about "affordable options," as opposed to public options.

"With today's developments, it now appears that the American people will have the vote they deserve on genuine reform that offers security to those who have health insurance and affordable options to those who do not," Obama sais. "There's still much work left to be done, but not a lot of time left to do it."