Big business has more to gain from no public option than anyone

How many people are forced to stay in their jobs and health insurance benefits because they know the next job might not have insurance or they have a pre-existing condition that will not be paid by the insurance offered by the next job?

The way the system is currently set up, health insurance is such a major carrot that decent wages or working conditions have taken a back seat.

Wages have stagnated while production has increased. No one can buy so no one does. The middle class shrinks while executive salaries are obscene despite poor executive performance.

If there was a public option, couldn't small businesses (currently unable to offer health insurance) make themselves more competitive by being able to expand their workforce? Alternately, you could buy your own insurance and take the better paying job at a different company?

Isn't this lack of choice about health care that keeps a worker from looking for a better job a subtle form of slavery?

Funny. Just as I was writing this, the US Chamber of Commerce just ran an ad on TV against health care reform talking about the money it's going to cost.

It's all starting to become clearer now. We're focusing on the insurance companies lobbying against health care. It's the big business money we don't see that's the real worry.

how many of those "forced to stay in their jobs and health insurance benefits" will be replaced by temps and outsourced labor? Or have their hours reduced to the point where the technically are no longer "full time employees", and thus not contractually obligated to have benefits? Or, like the trucking industry (along with others), where you no longer work for a specific company but are an "independent contractor"?