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Obama may soften healthcare plan

kaya'08

kaya'08

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BBC World News said:
President Barack Obama's administration has signalled that its healthcare reforms may be diluted, amid pressure from opponents.
Mr Obama has been pressing for a government-run scheme to extend healthcare insurance to some 46 million people in the US.
But Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that this had never been Mr Obama's top priority.
She hinted that he may accept the idea of non-profit insurance co-operatives.
In an interview with CNN, Ms Sebelius said that Mr Obama's government-run insurance plan - a so-called "public option" - was "not the essential element" of the administration reforms.

"I think what's important is choice and competition. And I'm convinced at the end of the day, the plan will have both of those," she said.
Separately, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also refused to say that the "public option" was a make-or-break choice.

Mr Gibbs said Mr Obama's administration would consider an alternative proposal of consumer-owned, non-profit co-operatives that would sell insurance in competition with private industry.

The proposal is currently being fine-tuned in the Senate Finance Committee.

The comments of Mr Obama's senior officials come in contrast to the president's remarks at a "town-hall" speech in Colorado on Saturday that his faith in a public option was strong.
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If the administration makes this concession it would probably enrage many of its liberal supporters, correspondents say.
But they say it could also deliver the president a much-needed win on his top domestic priority for 2009.

There has been some progress in the House of Representatives on agreeing a deal on the issue but negotiations in the Senate have stalled.
Both chambers need to agree on a bill before it can become law.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama may soften healthcare plan
 
I wish Obama would at least try to get a conditional public plan (in addition to the co-ops), where the public plan is implemented only if certain conditions are not met by the private sector. Bush did the same thing for Medicare Part D, and so far the competition for prescription drugs has been judged to be adequate enough.
 
I don't consider the public option the most important part of health care reform. If it has to be sacrificed in order to get other changes, that is the price of politics. However, he would be best served keeping it on the table until the actual vote. I have no doubt that some comparable nonsense to the
"death panels" would arise regardless of what the bill actually contains.
 
This bill, no matter how they water it down, will be the death knell for the Dems. Personally, I think they're going to ramrod it through, as is.

It's obvious that the American people see this for what it is: just another welfare program that will come out of the pockets of the working class. After the stimulus debacle and the UAW bailout, folks aren't going to stand for another high dollar piece of legislation.
 
rathi said:
I don't consider the public option the most important part of health care reform. If it has to be sacrificed in order to get other changes, that is the price of politics. However, he would be best served keeping it on the table until the actual vote. I have no doubt that some comparable nonsense to the
"death panels" would arise regardless of what the bill actually contains.
Click to expand...

What about the government nanny program? Should that stay in the bill? That's the next stumbling block, IMO.
 
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