Poll: support growing for public option

Public support for a public option in health care appears to be growing, according to a new poll.

The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey found that 48 percent support a government-run plan to compete with private insurers and 42 percent oppose it -- the strongest support ever in the survey. Last month, opinion was basically divided with 46 percent in favor and 48 percent against.

The new poll, conducted Thursday through Sunday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The top Senate Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, revived the possibility of a public option being in the final bill by announcing Monday that he would include one in the version he plans to bring to the full Senate -- albeit with a big exception in that states would be able to opt out.

But at the same time, Reid's move might have cost him a vote of a Senate moderate.

The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with Democrats, is saying that while he's "strongly inclined" to vote to bring Reid's health care plan to the Senate floor for debate, he would ultimately vote no because it includes a public option.

Lieberman told the AP that he's worried a public option would be costly to taxpayers and drive up insurance premiums.

UPDATE: But Lieberman told Politico that he would join a Republican filibuster if the bill includes a public option.

"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman told Politico. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now." 

And Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the only Republican to support any of the health bills so far, is saying she would vote with fellow Republicans to block the Democratic bill if changes are not made to the version that Reid outlined, the AP reports.

Counting Lieberman, Democrats control 60 votes -- just enough to overcome a possible GOP filibuster -- so Snowe's vote could be crucial.