AP: White House Appears Ready To Drop Public Option

[HopeOverFear]

(keep in mind, this is AP, so...)

WASHINGTON – Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama's health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul.

The White House indicated it could jettison the contentious public option and settle on insurance cooperatives as an acceptable alternative, a move embraced by some Republicans lawmakers who have strongly opposed the administration's approach so far.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama has been pressing for the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation's almost 50 million uninsured.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a government-run public option, a sign Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the must-win showdown.

"I think there will be a competitor to private insurers," she said. "That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices, we need some competition."

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said co-ops might be a politically acceptable alternative as "a step away from the government takeover of the health care system" that the GOP has assailed.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate's budget committee, pushed the co-op model as an alternative, saying it has worked in other business models.

As proposed by Conrad, the co-ops would receive federal startup money, but then would operate independently of the government. They would have to maintain the same financial reserves that private companies are required to keep to handle unexpectedly high claims.

Republicans say a public option would have unfair advantages that would drive private insurers out of business. Critics say co-ops would not be genuine public options for health insurance.

[SoFlaJet]

1. we'll see about that...

wait...

[Cha]

2. AP? I don't believe it. So much bullshit so

little time.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Reuters has the same story

and you are running out of excuses for not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for what it is: the incoming train of another sellout.

[Cha]

7. Pres Obama has said time and time

again that he needs our help to pass this and yet you and others full of negativity concentrate on the corporatemediawhore shit.

[IndianaGreen]

9. He needs our help? He is the one that put single payer off the table!

FRAK that!

[Cha]

11. Time for you to get real..but

I can see that's not going to happen.

[sandnsea]

23. Well if people had any comprehension skills

They'd see that she said the public option isn't *the* essential part of reform. Meaning there are other parts of health care reform that are more essential to real change and improvement than the public option.

I have said for a long time that *the* essential part of reform is the amount of the subsidies. If people can't afford the premium, this won't work. Period.

I don't know what her essential part of reform is, she just doesn't think it is the public option.

Nowhere in there does she say the public option is dead.

[Better Believe It]

28. Better believe it!

[downeyr]

3. I'll believe it when I see it. n/t

[uponit7771]

5. I'll wait for the final bill, Sebelius is NOT....NOT helping

[Ikonoklast]

6. Obama himself said he'd veto a no public option bill.

There is no way this will happen.

Some of those 'quotes' are incomplete.

This is just positioning and politics to gauge the reaction.

[HopeOverFear]

8. Did he? I didn't know that.

[downeyr]

16. I'm Pretty Sure

That he said that...hopefully someone around here has a link to it. If so, that would be great!

[Mass]

15. Can you source that?\nt

[Ikonoklast]

21. Yes. See below.

[DrToast]

17. He never said that. n/t

[Ikonoklast]

19. Really.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/obama-demands-the-bill-i-sign-must-include-public-option.php

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what's best for your family."

Yes, you are 'toast'.

[DrToast]

22. Funny, I don't see the word 'veto' in there.

And yes, it matters. Politicians say crap like that all the time. If Obama really meant that he would veto any bill without a public option then he would have said so.

[Ikonoklast]

24. Wow, you're even dumber than you pretend to be.

He stated that if the bill doesn't have a public option, he will not sign it.

So, no matter what he says, you aren't going to believe it.

Alrighty then.

[DrToast]

34. But that's not what you said he said

Nice try though.

[Blaukraut]

10. The WH must rein in its spokespeople

and keep them all on message. It seems like they are voicing their own opinions and preferences without regard of the official position. This creates confusion and talking points for the media and opposition.

[HopeOverFear]

12. So apparently Sebelius sucked today on tv.

Hmmm.

[cruadin]

18. Too many times, individual statements

(or sometines misstatements) are taken to be the new position of the Administration.

Of course the corporate media runs with these every time to create 'buzz'.

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. He's lost me and my wife, then. Dems have bungled this badly.

[Seen the light]

20. I will not vote for Obama in 2012 if this is indeed true

Pathetic and cowardly.

[Clear Blue Sky]

14. Time for leadership.

[leftofthedial]

25. if this is true (and it's not just AP who elieve it),

are you Obama apologists ready to finally criticize him for something?

[Skidmore]

26. And we believe these news services?

The same ones who helped lie us into war? The ones that even the National Enquirer has reported circles around?

I will believe this if and when I hear it from the man himself.

[IndianaGreen]

30. I watched the Sebelius interview on CNN at noon EDT

and she was correctly quoted by Reuters.

[Skidmore]

33. Ever occur to you that there might be a little good cop-bad cop

going on?

[high density]

27. Oh the Wurlitzer is in high gear today

I wonder why they chose a Sunday to blast out this silly "It's dead!" meme.

[Patsy Stone]

35. I think Chuckie Todd started it last night.

He hinged the whole thing on the phrase "whether the public option is in the plan or not" in the POTUS's answer about something else. Of course that, to Chuck, meant Obama was abandoning his support for it. The usual suspects (AP, Politico, et. al.), ran with it under the cover of the "liberal" MSNBC so they couldn't be shown to be "partisan" in their opinions. Of course no one has explained why Obama would spend so much time explaining it to the American people if he didn't want it.

[Better Believe It]

29. Conservative Democrats don't want progressives to see this. Notice the unrecommends?

They are organized to keep this off the Democratic Underground front page or at least the greatest page.

[vaberella]

32. What level of paranoia are spewing?!

First off it's an AP article...they lie a lot. They wrote as though Obama mentioning his mother or grandmother during the campaign is some sort of political tactic when the guy is showing how he can relate to the average people and not above anyone. Yet, you are catering to this? By the way thanks for letting me know unrec'ing a thread is now choosing a political position. As if my life is not politicized enough now I have to deal with rec'ing and unrec'ing as another. Oy.

[quantass]

31. Majority in House + Filibuster Proof Senate + 83% America Support for PO = Cave to Repubz

:shrug: -- The signs are pointing that this is the case but we will see in September but so far this is not good at all.

[Bluerthanblue]

36. she said:""I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,"

uhhhhh.... how can that happen without it being a 'threat' to the "private insurers" which the oponents are so concerned about?

The Post Office is not run by the govt. but it isn't private either- something like that?