Two Senate panels are focusing on the toughest unresolved issue in healthcare reform: the scope of a public role in providing insurance. As the Senate reconvenes next week, though, they're not considering  a government-run, single-payer plan, even though that option is backed by about 80 House Democrats.

According to a report by the Christian Science Monitor, President Obama favors having a government-run plan compete for customers alongside private insurers. But moving from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system run by the government “could be hugely disruptive,” he said at a town-hall meeting in Annandale, Virginia, last Wednesday.

“My attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free-market system,” he said.

If not single-payer, then what?  Read the full report from the Christian Science Monitor [HERE]