1. How many people will have access to, and are expected to be covered by, "the public option"?

2. Will access to and use of it be enough, and under terms attractive-enough, that it will (hard to type this with a straight face) "keep the insurance companies honest"

Citing Jacob Hacker's original paper doesn't cut it, since the plans in Congress are drastically limited... yet are routinely given the credibility in progressive circles as if they weren't.

"Public option" has been promulgated at the expense of momentum for single-payer or nationalized healthcare -- and of any accountability for the White House and Congress's un-transparent process.