By Joe Frandino

According to reports by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the newest health-care legislation has been trimmed down to just over $611 billion—a number that still includes a public option. Democratic leaders in Congress have been working hard to reduce the cost of the bill, which originally stood at more than $1 trillion, and are now confident that the progress being made will further reduce cost and still expand benefits.

“We are on the cusp, on the brink of doing something here that is critical,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is leading health care reform efforts in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“This is a strong number that will allow us to achieve the president’s goals,” Dodd said. “We believe these numbers are going to be very encouraging to people concerned about cost.”

President Obama has said that he wants to sign a health-care reform bill, complete with the public option, by this October. Over the past few months, Democracy for America, Howard Dean, and President Obama have been promoting the merits of the public option across the country.

A public option would offer cut-rate medical premiums, according to an article on The Daily Me:

…the public option would not only help the tens of millions of Americans that uninsured, but would also help the middle classes by reducing the cost of medical coverage.

“A public plan is able to basically not worry about profit or overhead," said economist Karen Davis, president of the New York-based Commonwealth Fund. “They don’t advertise or pay commissions to brokers. The are able to pay providers rates that are adequate for the effective provision of care.”

A Medicare-like plan would be able to offer premiums as much as 25 percent lower than private coverage. If the plan is eventually opened to all employers, it would sign up 123 million people. Meanwhile, the number of people with private coverage would plummet by about 114 million.