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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Obama softens on 'public option' in health care debate AFP - Monday, August 17 WASHINGTON (AFP) - - An embattled President Barack Obama and his aides signaled Sunday a softening of the administration's insistence on a so-called "public option," or government insurance plan, as crucial to the reform of the US health care system. ADVERTISEMENT With angry debates dominating the airwaves and opposition emerging in the Senate, Obama said in a speech in Colorado Saturday that a government health insurance program to compete with private insurers was just a small piece of the reform plan. "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," he said in a town hall meeting. "And by the way, it's both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else," he said. The president's aides were out in force on television talks shows Sunday to defend his health care reform agenda against the battering it has taken in televised public forums commandeered by screaming opponents. In a campaign filled with sensational claims and confrontational tactics, reform opponents have played heavily on fears of a government takeover of the health care system, which Obama has sought to ease in a series of public appearances across the country. Some 46 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, an obviously complex and costly issue. Pressed on whether Obama was still behind a "public option" or signaling that it is time to consider a "Plan B," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Obama "continues to be very supportive of some options for consumers." Sebelius said the US Senate was proposing non-profit insurance cooperatives instead of government insurance, and suggested the administration might accept that. "I think what's important is choice and competition. And I'm convinced at the end of the day, the plan will have both of those. But that is not the essential element," she said in an interview with CNN. "I think the president is just continuing to say, let's not have this be the only focus of the conversation," she added. She said the administration's goal was insurance coverage for all Americans, lower costs and tighter rules to make sure insurance companies cannot pick and choose who they cover. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also suggested that having a "public option" was not as important as the broader goal of injecting some form of competition into the private insurance market. "The president believes that this option, the option of a government plan, is the best way to provide choice and competition," he said in an interview with CBS television. "But you mentioned Senator (Charles) Grassley, who is working with Democratic and Republican colleagues to fashion a bill in the Senate Finance Committee, and we certainly look forward to their ideas," he said. Grassley is a Republican from Iowa. Gibbs said Obama wanted to build and improve on the current system of employer-sponsored health insurance, while providing incentives to small businesses not to stop covering their employees, which some studies say would happen if the government provided a subsidized alternative. He dismissed the angry confrontations that have colored recent health care debate as "good TV, and that's about it." But he said Obama understands "that people have questions and concerns about health insurance reform." "I think one of the reasons the president is out there, has been out there three times in the past week is to try to address the misinformation that is out there about health insurance reform. "He also understands this isn't going to be easy," Gibbs said. Obama, who has portrayed the battle over health care as "a contest between hope and fear," has made campaign-style stops in New Hampshire, Montana and Colorado over the past week to engage his critics. In Grand Junction, Colorado, he invoked his personal distress over the death of his late grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. "What you can't do, or you can, but shouldn't do is say things like we want to set up death panels to pull the plug on Grandma," Obama said. "I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it's like to watch somebody you love, who's aging, deteriorate, and have to struggle with that." Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Related Articles: Obama's Presidency Obamas marvel at Grand CanyonAFP - Monday, August 17 Obama softens on 'public option' in health care debateAFP - Monday, August 17 Obama heats up defense of health care planAFP - Sunday, August 16 Obama touts health care reformAFP - Sunday, August 16 Related Articles: World Seven dead as accident shuts top Russia hydro stationReuters - 2 hours 14 minutes ago Turkmen join Arabs to stop vote on Iraq oil provinceAFP - Monday, August 17 AP IMPACT: Banks added 10,000 branches in boomAP - Monday, August 17 12 foreign ecotourists robbed on trip in PeruAP - Monday, August 17 Venezuela says no plan to stiffen oil pact termsAP - Monday, August 17 Enlarge Photo President Barack Obama speaks to the issue of "death panels" during a health care town hall meeting in the Central High School gym on August 15, 2009 in Grand Junction, Colorado. Obama and his aides signaled Sunday a softening of the administration's insistence on a so-called "public option," or government insurance plan, as crucial to the reform of the US health care system. Related Photos Slideshow US elections 2008 Related Full Coverage Obama's Presidency What change will Obama bring? Will it affect the rest of us globally? All Full Coverage Most Popular – World Viewed Don't brush with baldness: put down that comb In death, as in life, Jackson surrounded by wackiness Singer George Michael arrested after car crash Millions of salmon fail to turn up in Canada Eternal resting spot next to Marilyn Monroe to be auctioned View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Community - Intellectual Property Rights Policy - Help

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