Back in the United States, stock prices in the nation’s largest insurance companies are on the rise following news of a Senate plan to abandon the public insurance option. The Standard & Poor’s Managed Health Care index rose 1.6 percent Wednesday, compared to a 0.6 percent drop for the broader index of 500 companies. The gains followed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement that Democrats won’t propose a government-funded health plan to compete with private insurers. Instead, Democrats will back a measure in which the federal Office of Personnel Management would hire the insurance companies to run government-backed health plans. One day after Reid’s announcement, a new poll showed a majority of Americans continue to support the public option rejected by Democrats. Fifty-nine percent want a government-funded public option included in a healthcare reform bill, a 30-point margin over the percentage of Americans opposed.