Unless the "public option" is free or inexpensive it's snake oil.. and dangerous snake oil at that.

[stopbush]

2. Current Medicare receipients pay $135 a month in premiums, sometimes more if they have an Advantage

plan. And that is per person.

One assumes that any public option buy-in would cost at least as much as Medicare, which means that a family of four would be paying $540 a month in premiums. Not bad, but not good if your employer happens to be paying 100% of your premiums.

Then, there's the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax that is shared by employee and employer (each pays 1.45%). That's $725 per year for an employee making $50,000 a year. But that deduction is only enough to cover the current 19% of people on Medicare. That deduction may need to increase FIVE FOLD to suddenly cover 100% of the population. That's $3625 a year for that person making $50,000.

And what about covering the wife and kids in a single-income household? Would that payroll tax deduction go even higher in such a situation?

Add it all up and a family of four under MFA earning $50,000 a year could be paying over $10,000 a year in premiums and taxes. Of course, one assumes there would be exceptions and exemptions for low-wage earners. Just a matter of where those lines are drawn.

Bottom line: no way a public option can ever be free.