Out of the darkened back rooms and locked doors of the U.S. Capitol Building lurks the Ghost of Government Health Care Future, known more affectionately as the "public option" plan. And it's come to warn us, through the example of it's own slow, painful demise, just what life with government-run health care looks like.

Like an unfortunate patient forced to wait what seems like an eternity on a health treatment decision to be handed down by government bureaucrats, the fate of the public option is now being decided by a handful of politicians in Washington. While it's not dead yet, the public option certainly seems to be on life support at this very moment, and it's hopefully only a matter of time before someone officially pulls the plug.

By and large, media outlets, blogs and analysts all seem to agree that the public option won't survive the month. Today's Washington Post reported that "the final bill will not include the House's government-run insurance plan, or "public option."" The Post's E.J. Dionne, himself a liberal columnist, wrote yesterday, "the public option is, alas, dead."

Yet despite many premature rumors of its demise, the public option continues to cling to life. Just this week, the Huffington Post continued to hold out hope, publishing a piece on how government might still get a foot in the door via a hybrid public option that could win votes from moderate Democrats. The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumpka named the public option as one of the three issues that are critical to union officials. And late Monday night, the liberal blog Wonk Room / Think Progress wrote a second piece in as many weeks laying out the steps by which the public option could be salvaged.

The takeaway is that the government-run public option isn't "dead" and it's extremely important that we keep up the fight to make sure that it is not resuscitated. We must continue to vigorously oppose the public option during this crucial final stretch.