1) More than likely your company will drop its insurance and you will be forced into the public option. This is for several reasons.
a. If an employer fails to offer insurance they will be charged a penalty. This penalty is relatively minor compared to the cost of paying private premiums. Therefore, it would be an economic advantage for them to drop your insurance and place you into the public option.
b. Private insurance companies will not be able to sell new policies after a certain date. If you are kicked off your insurance after the date in which you could purchase a private policy you will have no option but the public option.
c. I would also assume that even if you were in the “crappy” plan, you have a right to drop that insurance after the plan year, which should allow you to get into the public option.

2) This is not like welfare and does not take you family situation into account. It only concerns itself with two questions. Do you have insurance and does your insurance meet the minimum standard for a health care policy as described by the government. In this way any one without coverage could full under the public option and those whose employers do not offer a compliant plan could join the public option.

3) Great question. The simple fact is we do not know. The bills have not been finalized and have not gone through conference. In traditional single payer systems such as in Canada and the U.K. I do not believe there are co-pays.

However, you should educate yourself on these programs because people suffer longer wait times. I believe in Canada the average ER wait is 23 hours and in many cases people cannot get a family doctor. These are issues which could drastically change this country forever and I advocate that everyone educate themselves as much as possible before deciding if this is really good for us. Remember - these are our tax dollars and our health care - YOU DON'T GET ANYTHING FOR FREE

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