Obama may be backing down on public health care option : Ruben Sarmiento

Posted on August 17, 2009
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Sunday the Obama administration signaled it might be ready to drop the position of giving Americans the option of government run health insurance as part of the new health care system.

With opposition continuing to mount administration officials left open the possibility for a compromise with Republicans. The compromise would likely include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government run option.

This compromise would likely enrage Obama’s liberal base but would be somewhat of a victory on a top domestic priority.

Obama wanted the government run option to help cover the 50 million or so who are uninsured. However he did not include it in his three core principles of reform.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that government alternative to private health insurance is “not the essential element” of the administration’s health care overhaul. The White House would be open to co-ops, she said, a sign that Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory.

Under Sen. Kent Conrad’s proposal, consumer owned nonprofit cooperatives would sell insurance which would put them in competition with the private industry. It’s not unlike the system they have in his own state for electric and agriculture co-ops. This system is found in especially in rural states like his own state of North Dakota.

The government would give them $3 to $4 billion in initial support. The co-ops would then operate under a national structure with state affiliates, however they would be independent from the government. They would have to maintain the type of reserves private companies do in case of unexpectedly high claims.

“I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,” Sebelius 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.”

Obama’s spokesman would not to say a public option was a make-or-break choice.

“What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

Just the day before he made these comments:

“All I’m saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colo. “This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.”

This is not something new, it has been discussed for months but the White House and the Democratic leadership had said they preferred a government run option.

Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said this “It’s not government-run and government-controlled,” he said. “It’s membership-run and membership-controlled. But it does provide a nonprofit competitor for the for-profit insurance companies, and that’s why it has appeal on both sides.”

He also added there are enough votes in the Senate to pass such a bill.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Obama’s team is making a political calculation and embracing the co-op alternative as “a step away from the government takeover of the health care system” that the GOP has pummeled.

“I don’t know if it will do everything people want, but we ought to look at it. I think it’s a far cry from the original proposals,” he said.

Republicans argued that a public option would be unfair and drive private insurance companies out of business. Critics of co-ops say it would not be true public options for health insurance.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, said it would be difficult to pass any legislation through the Democratic-controlled Congress without the promised public plan.

“We’ll have the same number of people uninsured,” she said. “If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now, they’d be insured.”

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said the Democrats’ option would force individuals from their private plans to a government-run plan, a claim that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office supports.

“There is a way to get folks insured without having the government option,” he said.

A shift to a cooperative plan would certainly give some cover to conservative Blue Dog Democrats who are not exactly the most supportive of a government-run plan.

“The reality is that it takes 60 percent to get this done in the Senate. It’s probably going to have to be bipartisan in the Senate, which I think it should be,” said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who added that the proposals still need changes before he can support them.

Obama, wrote this in Sundays edition of the New York Times:

“In the coming weeks, the cynics and the naysayers will continue to exploit fear and concerns for political gain,” he wrote. “But for all the scare tactics out there, what’s truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing.”

I think if the President backs down on this government run option it would be a huge mistake. His administration has put so much behind getting this in the bill, they can not just back down. He spent so much political currency on this in the past few months that he can’t just back down now. Do you think George Bush would have reached across the aisle to Dem’s if he was in this situation? No, of course he wouldn’t if he had the majority in both the Senate and The House. One thing I liked about George Bush was that he stood up for what he believed in, all be it wrong. He didn’t care If anyone liked it or not. Obama needs to crack the whip and get the Dem’s in line on this. Then he needs to say to Republicans no more of this bipartisan crap, you either make an effort to work with me or you will cut out. Dem’s have the majority in the House and Senate, they don’t need Republicans on this. He needs to grow a pair of you know what, make a stand and get this done. At least George Bush had you know what big enough to do such a thing. If he does cave in on this, I think this will be in fact his Waterloo and he won’t be the Seventh Coalition but Napoleon.

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