This is very good news. Now perhaps Congress will get down to seious health reform, not pie-in-the-sky welfare state fluff.
Sebelius Says Government Insurance Plan Not Essential (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
“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.”
Of course not everyone is happy about this -
And here's the last word -
Comments