Public Plan

President Obama is correct in saying that a public health insurance plan would help lower costs for everyone by making the market more competitive. But when the Obama administration signaled this week that it was backing away from a public plan, it wasn't putting the kibosh on meaningful change. What it was saying was that we've taken our collective eye off the ball. The point of this debate isn't whether the government should offer its own insurance product -- and it's certainly not whether the government wants "death panels" to kill old people.

Anh Van never intended to have children. So when she went to the doctor for what she believed was the flu, she was surprised to discover she was pregnant. Then she got another shock: Her private insurance didn't include maternity care. Van, who has insulin-dependent diabetes, called several companies but couldn't find anyone willing to cover her pregnancy.  "Every insurance company we called basically denied us," said her husband, Brian Huh. "It was pretty appalling. " Although HMOs and employer-based insurance policies in California are required to include maternity care, individual policies are not. That leaves women who are self-employed or not covered at work with few options, including paying out of pocket for pregnancy and childbirth costs.

Anh Van never intended to have children. So when she went to the doctor for what she believed was the flu, she was surprised to discover she was pregnant. Then she got another shock: Her private insurance didn't include maternity care. Van, who has insulin-dependent diabetes, called several companies but couldn't find anyone willing to cover her pregnancy.  "Every insurance company we called basically denied us," said her husband, Brian Huh. "It was pretty appalling. " Although HMOs and employer-based insurance policies in California are required to include maternity care, individual policies are not. That leaves women who are self-employed or not covered at work with few options, including paying out of pocket for pregnancy and childbirth costs.

Henry Yu glanced nervously toward the sky. He had paid to taunt the Dodgers, for a plane to tow a banner above Dodger Stadium demeaning the home team, and the plane had not shown up at the appointed hour. Turns out the skies were so crowded that Yu's plane had to wait to enter the airspace above the stadium. The storied Dodgers-Giants rivalry went aerial Thursday, with a touch of mutual provocation amid the Dodger blue sky. "That is one thing they never did at the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field," Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti said.

The Obama administration's senior healthcare official Wednesday flatly rejected the idea of taking over the nation's medical insurance system, saying the federal government did not want to assume management of healthcare coverage. Kathleen Sebelius, in her first appearance before Congress since being confirmed as the secretary of Health and Human Services, said the administration wanted a "public plan option" to encourage competition. It does not want to create a monopoly.

Democratic leaders of the House unveiled a sweeping, 1,990-page healthcare reform bill last week that they plan to take to the floor early this month. Their counterparts in the Senate are nearing the same point, although they're still working to line up enough support from moderates to overcome a likely Republican filibuster. The progress on the bills is encouraging, and we find much to like in both. But we're also troubled by some of the choices top Democrats are making and by the costs that some lawmakers are trying to obscure.

With prospects fading that the Senate will include a government-run insurance option in healthcare reform legislation, congressional Democrats and Republicans are already sparring over an alternative -- a series of private regional cooperatives that advocates say could achieve the goals of a public plan without the potential for government interference. The key negotiators in the Senate -- the so-called Gang of Six of three Republicans and three Democrats from the Senate Finance Committee -- are scheduled to meet today by teleconference to discuss prospects for keeping a bipartisan health plan alive, which could hinge on the acceptability of co-ops to both sides.

Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea for a final vote in the coming weeks. President Obama has cited a preference for the so-called public option. But faced with intense criticism over the summer, he strategically expressed openness to health cooperatives and other ways to offer consumers potentially more affordable alternatives to private health plans.

In a dramatic sign of Democrats' growing confidence that they have the votes to pass a far-reaching healthcare overhaul, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that the bill he intended to send to the Senate floor next month would include a "public option." The provision would allow the federal government to create an insurance plan to be offered to Americans who do not get medical coverage through their employers -- with the proviso that states could opt out of the program.

Eastman Kodak Co. has said sayonara to about 22,000 workers over the last five years. Verizon Communications Inc. says it will have handed about 16,000 workers their hats by Dec. 31 -- and it is already looking ahead to the possibility of more layoffs next year. So it took more than a little chutzpah for the chief executives of both companies to go before reporters the other day to denounce a government health insurance plan as being bad for America. Where do they expect all the people they've thrown into the unemployment line to get coverage?

In choosing Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby for a vacant state Assembly seat, voters got a homegrown leader whose views on limiting government play well in the Republican stronghold. As expected, the former teacher, who grew up in Fullerton and served on its City Council before his 2002 upset election to the county Board of Supervisors, coasted to an easy victory in Tuesday's special runoff election, capturing 63% of the vote. Democrat John MacMurray won 31% and Jane Rands of the Green Party garnered 6%. "I have deep roots in the district," Norby said.

Democratic leaders of the House unveiled a sweeping, 1,990-page healthcare reform bill last week that they plan to take to the floor early this month. Their counterparts in the Senate are nearing the same point, although they're still working to line up enough support from moderates to overcome a likely Republican filibuster. The progress on the bills is encouraging, and we find much to like in both. But we're also troubled by some of the choices top Democrats are making and by the costs that some lawmakers are trying to obscure.

Eastman Kodak Co. has said sayonara to about 22,000 workers over the last five years. Verizon Communications Inc. says it will have handed about 16,000 workers their hats by Dec. 31 -- and it is already looking ahead to the possibility of more layoffs next year. So it took more than a little chutzpah for the chief executives of both companies to go before reporters the other day to denounce a government health insurance plan as being bad for America. Where do they expect all the people they've thrown into the unemployment line to get coverage?

In a dramatic sign of Democrats' growing confidence that they have the votes to pass a far-reaching healthcare overhaul, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that the bill he intended to send to the Senate floor next month would include a "public option." The provision would allow the federal government to create an insurance plan to be offered to Americans who do not get medical coverage through their employers -- with the proviso that states could opt out of the program.

Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea for a final vote in the coming weeks. President Obama has cited a preference for the so-called public option. But faced with intense criticism over the summer, he strategically expressed openness to health cooperatives and other ways to offer consumers potentially more affordable alternatives to private health plans.

Congressional Democrats this week will push toward showdowns on two of the toughest issues in the healthcare debate: whether to create a government alternative to private insurance, and how to pay the approximately $1-trillion cost of the overhaul. Neither issue will be settled until after the House and Senate have voted on complete bills and start negotiating the final legislation. But this week's intensive effort will provide the starkest display yet of the political fault lines the party faces as lawmakers search for a path to agreement.

President Obama's spirited defense Wednesday night of his broad healthcare goals avoided making concrete commitments on some of the most contentious issues, reflecting a guiding principle of his legislative strategy: to put off the most controversial decisions until the very last moment. It is a strategy born of political reality. At this stage of the process, when neither the House nor the Senate has even begun a floor debate, lining up firmly on one side or the other of the hot-button issues invites gridlock or even defeat.

Health insurance companies, facing the threat of a government health plan, offered Tuesday to reduce rates for millions of women and accept close federal regulation of their industry. The higher premiums now affect 5.7 million women, many of them self-employed people who must buy their own coverage. The industry is trying to head off creation of a government health plan that would compete with companies to enroll middle-class workers and their families.

President Obama's spirited defense Wednesday night of his broad healthcare goals avoided making concrete commitments on some of the most contentious issues, reflecting a guiding principle of his legislative strategy: to put off the most controversial decisions until the very last moment. It is a strategy born of political reality. At this stage of the process, when neither the House nor the Senate has even begun a floor debate, lining up firmly on one side or the other of the hot-button issues invites gridlock or even defeat.

Re: "Grossman burn unit is poised to relocate," Sept. 2: The impetus for the Grossman Burn Center to relocate sounds like a wonderful ad for proponents of the public option for health insurance. The owner of the facility, "with each hospital acquisition . . . canceled insurance contracts and collected higher reimbursements, while cutting staff and shortening patients' stays." Sounds to me like the public option would help remind healthcare companies what their main reason for being in business should be. Karl Strandberg Long Beach