Echoing the president’s comments yesterday signaling that the public option “is not the entirety of health care reform,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius indicated this morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” that a government-run program “isn’t essential” to Obama’s health care initiative. Reports 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. . . 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.
