That’s what The Hill is reporting:

Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.”

House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option.

The strategy could benefit Democrats struggling to bridge the gap between liberals in their party, who want the public option, and centrists, who are worried it would drive private insurers out of business.

This is an idea I have been behind for a long time now. Medicare is popular and it works, but most importantly – it is affordable.

Of course for this plan to truly be viable then the part E must be just that – for everyone. As Jonathon Singer points out, currently that isn’t the case:

That said, the public option does not allow all Americans to buy into the existing Medicare program, at least not how it is currently devised. Instead, the public option allows those who cannot afford insurance the choice of a public alternative to private insurance companies. The difference isn’t huge, but it is important. If all Americans believe that they are going to have this choice but then come to find out down the road that the choice is limited to only those who cannot afford private insurance — a significant minority of the country, but still a minority — they might not be too pleased.

Open the program up to everyone regardless of if you make $5,000 a year or $500,000 a year. Then the insurance companies can even offer supplemental insurance for Medicare, as they do now. Also this would provide a perfect time for Congress to fix the minor problems with Medicare and get its financing back in order.

Let’s do this Congress. Its the best plan we have so far and would be the most popular. It would also remove all the confusion of the phrase “public option”, and that alone would give us a huge spike in public support.