Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced today that the health care reform bill that hits the Senate floor in the coming weeks will include a public option. The decision to include or exclude government-run health insurance had been in flux, as one of the two Senate bills being merged over the past week did not include it.

"I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system, will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, and ensure competition," Reid said at an afternoon press conference in the Capitol. "And that's why we intend to include it in the bill that will be sent to the Senate."

Reid and senior advisers from the White House have been involved in backroom negotiations with the leaders of the two Senate committees that passed health care bills -- Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who ushered a bill through the HELP Committee, and Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). In doing so, a compromise was brokered to allow states to opt out of the public option by 2014.

"As we've gone through this process I've concluded, with the support of the White House and Senators Dodd and Baucus, that the best way to move forward is with the public option with the opt-out provision for states," said Reid, who cited recent national polling as evidence that the American public is in favor of the public option. "Under this concept states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out if they so choose."

Republicans have argued that a government-run insurance plan would lead to the demise of private insurance companies, while Democrats say its purpose is to keep the insurance companies honest and protect consumers by promoting competition.

"It will be a thousand-page, trillion-dollar bill that raises premiums, raises taxes and slashes Medicare for our seniors to create new government spending programs. That's not reform," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has previously said he is against comprehensive health care reform, with or without a public option. "So, wholly aside from the debate over whether the government gets into the insurance business, the core of the proposal is a bill that the American public clearly does not like, and doesn't support."

Reid said he was disappointed that so few Republicans appear willing to negotiate on health care reform, or many other issues that have come before the Senate this year, including extending unemployment benefits, which is currently being debated on the Senate floor.

"I'm always looking for Republicans" to support legislation, Reid said. "It's just a little hard to find them. ... When I came here to the Senate, we had a lot of moderate Republicans who worked with us on everything, and we worked with them. But of course now the moderates are extremely limited. I can count them on two fingers."

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican on the Finance Committee to vote in favor of the Baucus bill, but she does not support a public option of any kind -- including one with an opt-out provision for states. However, Reid hopes she will eventually support the bill.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released a statement saying President Obama is "pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out. As he said to Congress and the nation in September, he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition."

Later this afternoon, Reid will send the Congressional Budget Office a series of proposals that includes alternative versions of a melded bill, and he'll wait to hear back on how much each version would cost. Democrats need 60 votes to pass the bill, so Reid is looking for the most cost-effective, yet comprehensive, plan to do so. While there are 60 Democratic senators, not all of them have indicated support for the bill.

"As soon as we get the bill back from CBO and people have a chance to look at it," said Reid, "I believe that we will clearly have the support of my caucus to move to this bill and begin legislating."