Howard Dean Supports the Opt-Out

He sees the opt-out compromise as a pragmatic step for getting a public option.

The opt-out is being heatedly dismissed on the left, but we implicitly trust Dr. MeanDean, especially on health-care reform.

Given a strong public option in a national health insurance reform, we would bet that many of our more Republican states would allow their political leaders to huff and puff about how awful it all was while conveniently forgetting to opt out ... sort of the way they publicly eschewed the stimulus money but took it anyway.

And those red state legislators who do opt out will be exposed to their constituents as caring much more about insurance industry profits than their citizens.