Add to that Cancel Public Option: Drudge shows White Flag: Bloomberg has update:
Sebelius Says Government Insurance Plan Not Essential (Update1)
bloomberg.com
By Alison Fitzgerald and Timothy J. Burger
Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said providing citizens with the option of government-run insurance isn’t essential to the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of U.S. health care.
“What’s important is choice and competition,” Sebelius said today on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The public option itself “is not the essential element.”
Asked if a cooperative plan is a possible replacement, Sebelius said she didn’t know what alternatives Congress would settle on among competing versions of the health legislation now under consideration. The Senate Finance Committee is discussing cooperatives, or networks of health-insurance plans owned by their customers, that would get started with government funds.
Sebelius’ comments suggest that the Obama administration may be considering backing off its commitment to create a government-run health insurance system to operate alongside private insurers in order to get health legislation passed.
“There are not the votes in the Senate for the public option, there never have been,” North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad, one of the lead Democratic negotiators on health care in the Finance Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“To continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort,” he said.
“President Obama and his cabinet have read the tea leaves,” said Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, on the Fox program. The American people “don’t want a government- run program,” Shelby said. Shelby also said that the creation of co-ops, while “that would be government involvement” would be “a step in the right direction.”
Curbing Costs
The president has asked Congress to complete action this year on a health-care plan that would expand coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and attempt to curb medical costs that make up about a sixth of the nation’s economy.
The effort hit trouble this month as people across the country went to town hall meetings held by members of Congress to oppose what they call a government takeover of health care. Polls show Americans increasingly disapprove of the measure that may cost $1 trillion over 10 years.
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, predicted that the administration’s plan will result in rationing of health care for the elderly. “I don’t want a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats setting health care for my aged citizens in Utah,” said Hatch on ABC’s “This Week” program.
‘Death Panels’ Dropped
A provision in the plan that would provide end-of-life counseling to families, dubbed “death panels” by opponents, has also ignited opposition. Conrad said that provision has been dropped from consideration.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the danger of not acting outweighs any downside of Democrats’ proposals.
“What happens if we do nothing? That’s the riskiest option of all,” Gibbs said. “Your premium will double in less than nine years if we do nothing,” and tens of millions of Americans will lose their coverage altogether, he said.
Gibbs said that Obama “believes that this option, the option of a government plan, is the best way to provide choice and competition.” Still, he added, if an alternative plan offers consumers choice and competition to health insurance industry plans, “If we have that, the president will be satisfied.”
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Alison Fitzgerald in Washington at afitzgerald2@bloomberg.net Timothy J. Burger in Washington at tburger2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 16, 2009 12:33 EDT |
