Nicholas Kristof approaches the health care debate from a starting point that I and others have previously acknowledged, namely: We don’t leave everything to the free market. There are certain areas in which we commonly acknowledge that government is the better actor. Perhaps health care coverage is one of them.

Granted, Kristof seems to suggest (upon first read at least) that we go further with government health care than even I’m comfortable conceding, but he also offers compelling data to bolster his case and force at least this one unresolved mind to question its numerous reservations.

That does not mean I will start advocating a single-payer system. But it does nudge forward my evolving openness to a properly structured “public option,” along the lines of what I’ve read about the approach in Germany and elsewhere.

Of course, no matter where my mind is, the votes may not be there for a public option, as Ezra Klein hints in a post to which we linked earlier.