US urged to standby health reforms bid

FORMER Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said yesterday he doubts there can be meaningful healthcare reform without a direct government role.

Dean, a leading figure in the liberal wing of his party, urged the Obama administration to stand by statements in which it insisted that such a public option was indispensable to genuine change.

Dean appeared on news shows yesterday amid indications the White House is retreating from the option of public insurance in the face of vocal opposition from Republicans and some participants at meetings around the country.

The former Vermont governor was asked on NBC’s Meet the Press about President Barack Obama’s statement over the weekend that the public option for insurance coverage was “just a sliver” of the proposal.

US health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, advanced that line, saying a direct government role in a system intended to provide virtually universal coverage was “not the essential element”.

Dean said a public option is fair and that there must be such a choice in any genuine shake up of the system. “You can’t really do health reform without it,” he said.

Dean maintained that the health insurance industry has “put enormous pressure on patients and doctors” in recent years.

He called a direct government role “the entirety of health care reform. It isn’t the entirety of insurance reform… We shouldn’t spend $60 billion a year subsidising the insurance industry.”

Dean also said he doesn’t foresee any Republican support for a public option. “I don’t think the Republicans are interested and in order to have a bipartisan bill, you’ve got to have both sides interested,” he said.

The shift in the administration’s stance leaves open a chance for compromise with Republicans that could enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority.

Facing tough audiences, lawmakers and the White House are looking for a way to cover almost 50 million uninsured citizens but maintain political standing.

Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a public option. Under a proposal by Sen Kent Conrad, consumer-owned non-profit co-operatives would sell insurance in competition with private industry, not unlike the way electric and agriculture co-ops operate.

With initial financial support from the government, the co-ops would operate under a national structure with state affiliates. They would have to maintain the type of financial reserves that private companies are required to keep in case of unexpectedly high claims.

“I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,” Sebelius 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.”

Obama’s spokesman refused to say a public option was a make-or-break choice. “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,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.