So what do you think will be the result of the fight over health care reform in Washington?  That's the subject of our latest poll.

Your options:

• 1) Full blown nationalized/socialized "Obamacare" will become law
• 2) A "compromise" allowing continued free-market insurance along with a "public option" run by the government
• 3) A compromise that places new, heavy regulations on free-market plans, but no "public option"
• 4) Real reform allowing portability, purchase across state lines, expanded choices and maybe some tort reform
• 5) No bill at all, (Obama's "waterloo")

Click here and register your vote and add a comment.

We'll report the results next week.

Despite how fast they're trying to move forward, things are starting to get bumpy for Obamacare.  Here's a roundup of some of the latest coverage.

Poll: Americans split on health care as Obama's approval sinks

Americans are divided over how they want health care fixed and whom they trust most to do it, refusing to forge a consensus for or against President Barack Obama as he and Congress march toward a historic overhaul. ...

Obama and the Democrats who control Congress are pressing toward a vast overhaul of the health care system that could include tax increases to pay for expanded coverage and a federal government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers as one way to try to rein in insurance costs. Most Republican lawmakers say that a public plan would drive private insurers out of business.

On one key question, the poll found Americans split over the benefits of being able to buy insurance from a new government program. While 40 percent said they thought it would lower the quality of their care, 21 percent said it would improve the quality and 36 percent said it wouldn't make any difference. The rest had no opinion. ...

The survey found the ranks of people who think the country is on the right track dropping to 40 percent, down 12 points since early June and the lowest since Obama took office in January.

The Obama version of the military is kicking around the idea of banning smoking by all US military personell.  As you can guess, their rationale is financial...as in any health costs that taxpayers bear as a result of smoking in the military.

It also serves as a perfect example of things to come, if Obamacare becomes a reality.

Via USA Today:

Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.

Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon’s office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

The study by the Institute of Medicine, requested by the VA and Pentagon, calls for a phased-in ban over a period of years, perhaps up to 20. “We’ll certainly be taking that recommendation forward,” Smith says. ...

Now think about that same story in the light of Obama-care.  How hard is it for you to imagine that same story, with just a few words changed around, reporting on a statement by somene in the leadership of a nationalized health care system about the idea of banning smoking nationwide because it costs taxpayers money...since they would then be paying the freight for a nationalized health system.  read more »