WASHINGTON — Liberal supporters of President Obama were up in arms yesterday over signs from the White House that it was ready to pull the plug on a key aspect of its health-reform plan — creation of a government-run insurance program.
“You really can’t do health reform” without the so-called public option, said Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a medical doctor.
In a statement that cited strong House support for a government-run plan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, “A public option is the best option to lower costs, improve the quality of health care, ensure choice and expand coverage.”
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said, “Opposing the public plan is an endorsement of the status quo in this country that has left tens of millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured and put massive burdens on employers.”
Over the weekend, Obama dismissed the necessity of the public option, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius indicated that the White House was likely to drop its insistence on the measure, which would create a government-run health-insurance agency to provide coverage to millions of Americans.
The White House insisted yesterday that there had been no change in the administration’s support for a public option — but the shift was clear to people across the political spectrum.
“Let’s not say we’re doing health reform without a public option,” added Dean, reflecting sentiments of much of his party’s left wing.
Democrats have said the public option would provide low-cost insurance to the uninsured and force private insurers to compete by lowering their fees.
Obama now says these competitive forces can come through other aspects of the health-reform proposals, such as privately run insurance co-ops.
The co-ops would be controlled by their members and operated as nonprofits. The members would join together and purchase insurance for themselves.
“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,” the president said at a town-hall meeting in Colorado on Saturday.
“This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.”
Not so, insist liberal Obama allies in Congress, who threaten to join forces with Republicans to kill health-care reform if it lacks the public option.
“The Congressional Black Caucus remains committed to ensuring that health reform is meaningful, and that means making sure that a public option is part of the package,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the caucus chair.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn), who supports an entire government takeover of health care, said, “Leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of health care is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief.”
But the government’s own accountants say the bill drafted by House Democrats — even with the public option — would do nothing to lower health-care costs.
An undeterred Weiner added, “Walking away from the public option seems to me a surefire way to walking away from passing something in the House.”
During a “telephone town hall” last night, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn) strongly praised Obama for his efforts, but said he was disappointed by the possibility of dropping the public option for co-ops, which he called a “political cop-out” and a “terrible” idea.
He said he told Obama last week that many progressive House members would have trouble voting for a bill that lacks a strong public option.
churt@nypost.com