So call this a public option or don't, but under Wyden-Bennett the benefits for the poor equal the benefits of everyone in the nation, reimbursed by the government and backed by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury, which is in turn reimbursed by premiums paid by every person in the country (unless poor.) All of those people are paying (close to) the same rate as everyone elsee in their state based on actuarial data for almost the entire population of the state, pre-existing or chronic conditions be damned, with insurers trying to beat the actuarial rates by a small margin, gaining customers.

If these people weren't paying it through "premiums," (paid by withholdings and on tax returns) they'd still be paying it as taxes as they are now, without the benfit of the tax deductions now going to corporations (and richer people) as a regressive tax.

I would call that a public option, and one which funds health care honestly, without irrational cost shifting, without a regressive tax, and without the private insurers feasting by insuring the healthy/wealthy, while shuffling the poor and unhealthy onto the taxpayers (which you may have noticed are the same people they are insuring.)

That last point is the main point. It's hard to see it until you see it - and then it is as plain as day.

When you throw in cost shifting, regressive taxation, and medical-bill-induced bankruptcy, the "public" is already paying more than 50% of the nation's health care costs, while feeding a gluttonous industry.