Nope, you won’t see a public option in the legislation that is expected to come to a vote in the House later this week. But if it passes, we may well see a public option established in some–maybe many–states.

As Kate and I have written before, if this bill becomes law, states will be on the front lines of health reform. What they do will likely be the difference between whether this whole endeavor succeeds or fails. This morning, at the invitation of the National Governors Association, I moderated a health reform roundtable of four Governors: Democrats Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, and Republicans Jim Douglas of Vermont and Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Their insights were important and revealing.

Here’s one that surprised me: Governor Kulongoski said one of the first questions he will confront is the issue of setting up a public option as part of the state “exchanges” that would be required under the new law. Kulongoski supports a public option. And in his state, work on the feasibility of one is already under way. Oregon’s HB2009, passed last year, includes this direction to the state’s new Health Authority: