States try out Obama-inspired public health plans during Trump admin

Nearly two decades ago, progressives fought to include a so-called public option — a government-run health plan — in the broad health care overhaul known as Obamacare. That effort failed, defeated by heavy lobbying from the insurance industry and opponents who decried it as a government takeover of health care.

But the final Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama signed in 2010, didn’t bar states from adding a public option plan to their state-run insurance marketplaces.