Obama may drop public option in health care

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration signaled Sunday it may drop the idea of a publicly financed insurance option as part of a health care compromise.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the public option "is not the essential element." She said the administration would consider a bill that includes the creation of a not-for-profit insurance cooperative as an alternative to a government-run plan.

"What's important is choice and competition," Sebelius said on CNN's State of the Union.

Taking the public option off the table could lead to friction between President Obama and liberal Democrats who see it as the best way to get to universal coverage. "Without the public option, we'll have the same number of people uninsured," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, also speaking on CNN.

Sebelius' remarks came a day after Obama called the public option only "one sliver" of the health care plan. At a town hall in Colorado, he chided both conservatives and liberals for becoming so "fixated" on the topic.

Congressional Democrats have been getting pounded this month at town hall meetings over the public option by those who say it would lead to government control of health care.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said on Fox News Sunday that there are not enough votes in the Senate for the public option. One of three Democrats and three Republicans working on a compromise plan, Conrad said the proposed cooperative is "the only plan that has bipartisan support."

An insurance cooperative, Conrad said, would not be "government-run and government-controlled. It's membership-run and membership-controlled."

Opponents of the public plan, including most Republican members of Congress, say it could be used to undersell private insurance companies, driving them out of business. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., one such opponent, said on Fox News Sunday the insurance cooperative idea is worth reviewing.

"I don't know if it will do everything people want," Shelby said, "but we ought to look at it."