White House's Mixed Messages On "Public Option"

If your head is spinning from the mixed messages coming out of the White House about the administration's commitment to the "public option" in the debate over health care reform, you're not alone.

Here is a breakdown of the different positions articulated by the White House over the weekend:

On Saturday, President Obama downplayed the significance of a public option, telling a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado: "All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."

On Sunday morning, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made waves when she told CNN's "State of the Nation" that the public option, the government alternative to private health insurance, is "not the essential element" of the administration's plan. She added that the White House is open to health insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a government-run plan.

When John King asked her, "So the public option is not a deal-breaker from the president's standpoint?", Sebelius did not deny his assumption and answered:

"Well, I think there will be a competitor to private insurers. 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. We need some choices, we need some competition."

WATCH:

Also on Sunday morning, press secretary Robert Gibbs appeared on "Face the Nation" and stressed that the White House still supports a "public option," to introduce competition to the insurance industry and to lower prices.

When CBS anchor Harry Smith asked Gibbs the same question that King lobbed at Sebelius - "Does the president have to have a government-sponsored or government-run insurance plan in order for him to sign off on this, or is this a deal breaker?" - Gibbs was more emphatic about Obama's support for the public option:

GIBBS: Well, Harry, what the president has always talked about is that we inject some choice and competition into the private insurance market. There are places in this country, unfortunately, where if you don't get insurance through your job and you are seeking it on the private insurance market, you don't have any choice but one health insurance company. What the president has said, in order to inject choice and competition, which will drive down costs and improve quality, that people ought to be able to have some competitor in that market. There ought to be a choice that they have. The president has thus far sided with the notion that that can best be done through a public option.

SMITH: ... a hedge?

GIBBS: No, no, no. What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market. Again, if you are in a place in this country where you only get one choice, how in the world are you going to be able to convince anybody that you are driving down costs when you don't have to compete against anything?

WATCH:

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On Sunday afternoon, White House health care reform spokeswoman Linda Douglass also emphasized the president's support of the public option, echoing Gibbs' comments and declaring that "nothing has changed."

In an email to Politico, she wrote:

"Nothing has changed," said Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. "The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals."

And on Sunday night, The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder wrote that an administration official told him that Sebelius "misspoke" in underplaying the importance of the "public option":

An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform. This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President. The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president's view, the most important element of the reform package.

Comments

[research]

07:11 PM on 08/24/2009

Medicare for ALL!

We'll drop the public option if you will

pass HR676, Medicare for ALL!

first, not after.

[nellyb stl]

06:13 PM on 08/19/2009

I love the protestors sign reading, NO PUBIC option; thats about the size of their intelligence - and these people vote and breed.

The President's backers better step up to the plate and advise him to make good on his promises; he wouldn't be there without them.

[vegasobserver]

10:18 PM on 08/18/2009

We need a ROBUST public option, not a weak, watered-down, lily-livered, namby-pamby, Republicanified, corporatized, HMOgenated public option.

PUBLIC. OPTION. NOW.

[pattyfish]

05:02 PM on 08/18/2009

I think Obama is using Jedi mind tricks on the republicans...because the thought of him backing off a public option seems just as fantastical

[expired]

03:59 PM on 08/18/2009

People, we have to tell the Obama administration that it is time to stop playing the patsy to the cons and stand up and lead this country into a new healthcare reform. President Obama, you have done more than enough to reach across the isle. Enough with the partisanship crap. It is not working. No matter what you do or say, the cons will yell louder. Grow a pair already. We need a strong public health care option sans the concessions for the corporate welfare hounds. Bring it home, President Obama. Bring it home.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

[Eric8]

03:41 PM on 08/18/2009

This sounds like the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The real reason we were going to war was that there were like twenty reasons given. The health care reform is really just an intellectual exercise, maybe Obama thinks its just like a college classroom, then you go out after class and have a smoke behind the building.

I can't wait till the next health reform idea; how about these- we need to bailout the insurance industry from going broke, that will fix the problem. we need to have tort reform because its the lawyers who increased the costs of drugs. we need to just think positive and keep eating an American diet rich in fast food and cardboard. we need to travel to socialist countries acquire dual citizenship through marriage then get all our health care covered by another country.

[ThirdSection]

02:09 PM on 08/18/2009

Those of us who helped bring about the overwhelming victories for the Democratic Party in last year's elections need to remind them of why we voted and campaigned the way we did, and we need to do it constantly.

[DestinationsUnknown]

02:07 PM on 08/18/2009

Never had a doubt -

Does Murdoch teach Economics?

16-18% OF our economy - yet we hear people shout take care of the Economy first!

18% of Economy- what do the protesters think 18% of the economy is?

Australians warned us not to allow Rupert Murdoch to infiltrate our free press standards

England warned us not to allow Rupert Murdoch to infiltrate our free press standards

Sir Richard Branson said something like "if we let him, Murdock will destroy democracy".

We ignored Australia and England- look at the dumb down we got!

WSJ- Dumb it Down President!

72% of Americans want Public Option- Congress divided? Tom Delay's Gerrymandering does not match the American people!

Is 16%-18% of economy relevant?

[atn]

11:07 AM on 08/18/2009

The White House seems to be sending out signals that dropping the "public option" can now itself be considered an option. This possible giving up of a mere "sliver" of the total healthcare reform package has sent shivers down the spine of its many supporters. Once our health care choice has been handed back to the same cast of shady characters, the next step will be to water down provisions for health coops to competition-inducing irrelevancy. It'll be back to square one. The price of political expediency is a steady erosion of the President's support base. Can any conflict between special interests and the public interest ever be resolved in favor of the latter? Why does scare-mongering and shouting always triumph over reasoned argument? When will we ever again be presented with such a good shot at achieving genuine health care reform?

[jim67]

10:58 AM on 08/18/2009

Obama has developed a track record of being a flip flopper on
liberal issues. It is time to hold him to his word on having a
public option health care plan.

[raviandsonia]

01:56 AM on 08/18/2009

Remember when Hillary said that the right wing GOP would unleash its arsenal on Obaaand that he would not know what to do and that he would not have the chutzpah to stand up to GOP. Looks like she might have been right.

So with a trifecta of Democratic control of the House, Senate and Whitehouse, Obama is already showing his vulnerability and is ready to cave in to any loud noise the GOP is able to generate. This was Obama’s first test. If he does not assert himself, it will give the GOP a roadmap to defeat him at every turn. It will all be downhill for him from there.

He is still looking for consensus from the right. At some point he has to realize that the GOP has to make sure Obama fails if they are to have any chance to regain power. They will and are playing a very unashamed game with Obama with a smile and disguise of bipartisanship. Obama will not GET A SINGLE VOTE for his health care reform bill in ANY form. That would allow Obama to claim victory and would bode very badly for the GOP in the next elections.

Mr. Obama – I supported you. I voted for you. I campaigned for you. If this is how you intend to bow to the GOP’s tantrums, my confidence in you was misplaced. And for that I blame myself.

[sense oar sheep]

12:06 AM on 08/18/2009

thank you for rectifying early editorial issues on this thread

president obama is seeking dissenting opinions on health care

we should hear all americans that generally conform to standards of civility

[Icantbelieveher]

09:34 PM on 08/17/2009

It won't get through the house without a public option -- there are 100 progressive democrats who will refuse to vote for it without a public option.

Basically, the senate had better step up! We voted for change -- you've got 60 votes for crying out loud!!!!!!!

Why did Baucus give this away to the repubicans? Why did he choose 3 democrats and 3 repubs to negotiate in the finance committee -- the democrats have the MAJORITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They won't have it again if they don't pass a public option!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

WAKE THE FFFFFF UP!!!!!!!!!!!

[wonketteRAWKS]

09:13 PM on 08/17/2009

Let's face it. Obama just used you. He knows that the only bill he can get through would be one without a public option (even though the only real reform would be single payer). He had Sebellius mention what she said to see the reaction. Well, he got an earful. Thanks for playing.

[stacy1467]

07:15 PM on 08/17/2009

I love how those who oppose healthcare refrom, (mostly those on the right), continue to rant that they don't want government to come between American's and their doctor's, but they're ok with the government stepping between a women and her OB/GYN when she wants to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

HYPOCRITES!!!! Plain and simple.