Propaganda everywhere so the extreme ends are 12 millon and 47 million. So, yes, why not target that ~20 million people with the public option, at least making the voluntarily uninsured chip in and funding the rest from taxes and surcharges on private pay premiums (and adjusting for the existing public programs - even rolling them in to one program: Medicare for All Who Need It.) That would be one hell of a lot more honest and salable than just layering on employer and insurer mandates in the same old crappy fashion and pretending it's "reform" and a job well done.

Make a public option for 20 million people and work on it. Calibrate the funding and the subsidies and level the playing field while starting at the heart of the matter.

Regardless of special interests there are many people who don't want to be conned, on one side AND the other. How in the world the public option moved from the central issue to a side issue is just beyond my comprehension. (I have a feeling that the Dems were afraid to set out the true costs, and may have been willing to blur them with the lobbyists' obfuscatory proposals. The Swiss Menace article profiled a family of three which elected for some extra benefits and ended up at a current premium of $1,000 per month.)