RAY SUAREZ: As we heard earlier, there was plenty of reaction on Capitol Hill to this idea of an opt-out to the public option.

Now we take a closer look now at how it might work and its consequences.

Robert Laszewski is a former insurance executive and now president of his own consulting firm, Health Policy and Strategy Associates. And Ezra Klein is a staff writer at The Washington Post who blogs regularly about health policy.

And, Ezra, what is an opt-out provision, and how would it work?

EZRA KLEIN, "The Washington Post": So, the basic idea is, you have a national public option, which is what liberals wanted.

But, if Alabama doesn't want to have a public option, if California, for some reason, didn't want to have a public option, they can just say, no...