A promise to do something in the future in order to get out of having to do it now is not worth much, imo, but here's a new promise from Harry Reid about the public option:
Hoping to assuage progressive Democrats who remain disappointed with the content of the health care reform bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) committed on Friday to holding a separate vote on a public option in the coming months.
Reid apologized for failing to keep the public option in the current health care reform bill, but in a letter to Sens. Merkley and Sanders promised to bring it to a vote within the next several months.
Reid:
As you know, I am a strong supporter of a public option, and I included the HELP Committee's public option in the bill I brought to the senate floor last year. I was disappointed when it became clear that we did not have the votes to keep it.
Nevertheless, like you, I remain committed to pursuing the public option. While I believe that the legislation we are considering does much to provide affordable coverage to millions of Americans and curb insurance company abuses, I also believe that the public option would provide additional competition to make insurance even more affordable. As we have discussed, I will work to ensure that we are able to vote on the public option in the coming months.
Apparently this was the price for getting Bernie Sanders to drop his efforts to get the public option into the reconciliation package as an amendment.
Supposedly they're going to look for upcoming reconciliation vehicles that they can attach the public plan to for an up-or-down vote.
All that's missing is a promise that the leadership and the WH will be all-out arm-twisting for that initiative the way they are for the current private insurance industry support bill.