Posted on 08/17/2009 4:08:00 PM PDT by kellynla
The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was on the verge of abandoning a government-run insurance option in its healthcare overhaul -- a bow to political reality and a big win for insurers.
But some experts said that may not completely relieve pressure on insurers to deliver cost savings.
Both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday talk shows that a government insurance option was not essential -- one day after President Obama himself said as much.
Private-sector options, such as insurance exchanges or cooperatives, would be likely to replace it. Obama already has proposed forming exchanges -- virtual marketplaces where private insurers would compete for consumers' business. And co-ops would allow consumers to band together to negotiate coverage.
Sebelius told CNN's "State of the Union" that a public option is "not the essential element" of healthcare overhaul, but that lowering insurance costs and preventing insurers from dumping customers for preexisting conditions or for exceeding coverage caps are must-haves.
"I think there will be a competitor to private insurers," she 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."
Gibbs agreed, describing the "bottom line" for the president: "What we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I doubt its really dead. More likely its plotting a new course.
Kelly, I wouldn’t be so quick to declare Obamacare dead on arrival. Look for the House and Senate to pass different versions and then for the conference committee to put the provisions which were removed in the House or in the Senate back into the bill.
They are just calling the "public option" health care "co ops" now. The end result is the same! DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!
That 1.1 billion is still in the STIMULUS bill which pays for the organization (a member of which is ezekiel emanual, Dr. Death) to implement policies to ration healthcare for those in society who cost the most: the handicapped, the chronically ill and the babies, both here and outside the womb. All people who are not contributing to the “collective”
Sorry - it’s not dead —
It’s merely been moved into the Witless Protection Program...
(Only the name has been changed, to protect the President...)
It’s being renamed again. Public Mandated Wholeness.
I am not buying it and no one else should either. They are just disguising these co-ops that will eventually turn into gov’t run.
Change up the approach. Different tactics. Same objective.
Let's be very careful. A middle of the night vote is all it will take. Don't let up...
Its a headfake they will just force the existing industry to cover the people that would have been on the dole (the single payer system)
Wow, it only took the first sentence for the LAsadTimes to opine instead of report with “a big win for insurers.”
Obamacare is DOA? NOT!!
This Co-Op thing is just another way to get to a single-payer system. They’re floating this to try to win over anyone dumb enough to believe that they will give up this easily.
Socialized medicine is the Holy Grail of liberalism. They haven’t given up.
Just an hour ago Gibbs said it is still on the table.
Dr. Obama will bring it back from the dead.
Back off of the bank account audits too.
No, it’s not dead yet. Don’t take your eye off the ball. These tools in Congress are out of control and out of credibility. They’ll use reconciliation in conference if they have to.
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