It’s the bad idea that just won’t die: the public option.

Progressives have been pushing a government run “option” to private health insurance as some sort of panacea over the last few years. Their vision is that a government that has shown itself to be second to none in cost over-runs and bloat will somehow magically be able to operate more effectively and efficiently than private sector insurance. Their claims are that this will finally bring choice and competition to the insurance market.

Hogwash.

Conservatives won a minor victory (yes, it was a victory) when we got this stripped from the bill through public pressure. Despite that victory, the public option is not dead yet.

This weekend at Nutroots Netroots Nation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made his promise to the progressive activists and bloggers in attendance that they were going to get a public option passed.

“We’re going to have a public option,” Reid said. “It’s just a question of when.”

That “when” could be as soon as this year as Democrats wasted no time in reintroducing the public option as legislation.

It’s no secret that Progressives are playing the long game on health care. The failure of Obamacare will be used to push for the public option. When the public option fails (and it will), that failure will be used to push for single payer.

This is why Conservatives must begin to rally around free market solutions to health care. We must begin to swing the pendulum back in the direction of freedom.