Sam Stein reports Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) is predicting that the public option will be revisited in separate legislation, perhaps as early as next year.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told reporters that the public option is not dead. "It will be revisited," he said. "I'm just saying, I believe it is so vital and so important that it is going to be revisited. Believe me." The Iowa Democrat said that "even next year," senators "may be doing some things to modify, to fix, to compliment what we've passed here."

The idea of pushing for the public plan as a stand-alone piece of legislation sometime down the road has been championed by other supporters of the provision.

It would be terrific if Harkin's prediction turns out to be true. Of course, he also predicted (more than once) that the health care bill itself would contain a public option. At this point though, the only way we're going to get a public option is by passing a separate piece of legislation through the reconciliation process. It could be done; whether it will is a different question.