Responding to news Monday that Democrats are considering a health care package that would let states opt out of the so-called public option, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he’d prefer a bill with no mention at all of a public option.

“The public option, I think, may be sort of a Trojan horse to a government take over of health care,” Crist said.

What would a “government take over of health care” look like?

“I don’t think it would look very pretty,” he said.

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The U.S. Census for the first time has issued figures on Americans who don’t have health insurance and the news is not good for Florida.

As leaders in Washington wrangle with the contentious issue of health care reform, Florida finds itself ranked fourth-worst in the U.S. with 20.8 percent of its citizens uninsured. That’s close to worst-in-the-nation Texas, which had 24.1 percent uninsured, and way behind Massachusetts, the best in the country, with only 4.1 percent lacking coverage.

Read the rest of the story here from John Lantigua and Christine Stapleton.

TALLAHASSEE — Less than three weeks after President Obama complained about liberal activists attacking Democrats over health care reform, his own grass-roots campaign will put the heat on U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Thursday by rallying outside six of the Florida Democrat’s offices around the state.

Organizing for America, which continues to operate an Obama campaign Web site and use the president’s campaign logo, is scheduled to hold afternoon rallies in front of six of Nelson’s eight state offices. They include his West Palm Beach location at 500 Australian Ave., where the rally begins at 3 p.m.

Nelson has given little indication of how he would vote on key aspects of the health care legislation being debated, and he’s one of a key group of Senate Democrats whose support would be critical to overcoming a GOP-led filibuster.

The group will also demonstrate outside one of the seven Florida offices of Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.

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Lisa Smith of Lake Worth is featured in this video from President Obama’s Organizing for America, the latest in the group’s “Faces of Health Care Reform” video press release series.

In the video, Smith says she lost her job and her insurance and then was denied coverage by private insurers because of a preexisting condition. Smith has hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, and monthly prescriptions that cost about $800.

Obama’s team says that with regular checkups, it’s easier to control her condition. But without those visits, Lisa is “forced to wait until her situation is dire enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room.”

Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart doesn’t say exactly how the government should help Smith, just that it should.

“Unfortunately, her story is indicative of what’s wrong with our broken system – we must reform our system to lower costs, increase access and protect patient choice,” Stewart said in a release.

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Gov. Charlie Crist said today he will head to Miami, Daytona Beach and Tampa on Friday to promote a series of state web sites that are supposed to help Floridians find work, buy cheap prescription drugs and get health coverage.

“I know that people are hurting,” Crist said. “People can’t sign up for it if they don’t know it exists.”

Other tidbits from the press conference:

*The state’s 26,000 employees receive free health insurance, a perk that Crist said he wasn’t inclined to change.

*Crist shrugged off a suggestion that he oversold an unrealistic budget proposal to a legislature.

*And said he hoped that a possible tax on businesses would not prevent the state from accepting $444 million in unemployment benefits from President Obama’s stimulus package.