INQUIRER: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a visit to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital today that a government-run insurance program must be in the final version of health-care reform, even as other Democratic leaders have suggested it could pass without the provision. “No bill can pass the House of Representatives without a public option in it,” Pelosi said, after touring the hospital emergency room. Pelosi said the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the “public option” of health insurance would squeeze $100 billion in costs from the system over 10 years because of competition with private insurers. “That’s hard to […]