Appearing on Sunday morning's political talk shows, two of the Obama Administration's leading figures on health care reform have given signals that the "public plan option" will be dropped from the health reform proposals. Facing increased criticism, the Administration has signaled that it is open to compromise and will consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate Finance Committee.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the public option was “not the essential element” for reform and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, said that Mr. Obama, in wanting choice and competition in the insurance market "has, thus far, sided with the notion that can best be done through a public option". However, Mr. Gibbs continued saying that the bottom line is that, "what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market", but that it doesn't necessarily have to come from a public option. Many right-leaning health policy experts and pundits believe that the public option will disintegrate the private health insurance market, thus leading to a government-run single payer system.
Articles on the public option's floundering can be found in the following links:
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times
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