President Obama's health care speech will lack demand for public option

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Wed Sep-09-09 03:22 PM
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President Obama's health care speech will lack demand for public option

President Obama's health care speech will lack demand for public option
BY Kenneth R. Bazinet and Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - If you're a liberal New Yorker, prepare to be disappointed by President Obama's prime-time speech Wednesday night on health care reform.

Whether or not he's successful in prodding Congress into action, Obama will not demand the key Democratic goal of offering a public health insurance option.

"He will continue to equivocate like he and his staff have been doing recently," an informed congressional source said.

He and his staff recently have shifted from calling government-run insurance a must-have to a "very valuable tool."

For most of New York's Democrats, a final proposal must have a public insurance option to help those who can't afford it.

"At some point, there has to be a line in the sand," said Brooklyn Rep. Yvette Clarke, who won't back a bill with no government plan. "With all due respect to our President, and I respect him highly, that's not an option for me."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/09/09/2009-09-09_obamas_health_care_speech_will_lack_public_option.html

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Obama to Tout 'Public Option' in Speech to Congress
By Michael D. Shear, Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 9, 2009

President Obama will spell out his plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system in a nationally televised speech to Congress Wednesday night, providing more specifics about what he wants lawmakers to pass and a sweeping description of his reform goals, including nuanced support for a "public option," according to senior White House officials.

Briefing reporters hours before the speech, aides said Obama will endorse the option of a government-run health insurance program -- a controversial element of the debate -- but will call it "not an end in itself" while saying he is open to other specific ideas that have been floated as alternatives that could encourage insurance competition.

Earlier, Obama signaled that he would extol the value of the public option but would stop short of threatening to veto a bill that does not include the provision.

Obama's plan will include a health exchange, guaranteed insurance and tax credits for people who cannot afford it, measures to reduce costs, caps on out-of-pocket expenses and proposals to finance it all, the aides said.

"This is not a debate over whether we have a public option for the tens of millions of people who are not insured," one of the advisers said. Instead, he said, Obama will note that under his plan, hundreds of millions of people would remain in private insurance and not even have the choice of whether to join the public option.

In particular, many Democrats said they hoped Obama would deliver a strong defense of the public option amid reports that the White House is open to a compromise on the subject, such as a "trigger" that would launch a government-run program if private insurance companies failed to meet certain benchmarks.

"Trigger is another way of saying, 'kill the public option,' " said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). He complained that the administration's message on health care "sounds like Sybil," referring to the famous case of a woman with multiple personalities.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090901771.html?hpid=topnews