NP: shuffle play

Me, talking about health care, two weeks ago:

Last night, I watched Howard Dean on Olbermann, and his comment about it was that the best way to pass a public option through reconciliation would be via an expansion of Medicare. My question is, if the current reform package can make it through as it stands right now -- which, admittedly, is still an open question -- what's to stop an effort to expand Medicare down the road?

Ezra Klein, widely considered one of the most knowledgeable writers on health care issues, yesterday:

I've long wondered why Obama didn't promise this a while ago. A bill offering a public option and Medicare buy-in to age 55 would be a popular bill, and a good bill, and could be done after health-care reform had passed. The administration and others like to say that the Senate legislation is just a start, and they should begin acting on that belief. Pass the start, and then begin trying to make it better with smaller, discrete bills that are easier to message and pass.

Now, I don't read Klein as much as I read other people who read Klein, so maybe he's said this before. But I take arriving at the same conclusion as a good sign that my critical faculties are still working.