Obama still favors public health plan, aide says

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The White House sought to reassure jittery supporters Monday that President Obama is not abandoning the fight for a public health insurance option.

The assurance came in the midst of a media firestorm ignited over the weekend by administration officials seeming to indicate a willingness to drop such an option in order to secure congressional approval of a health-care reform bill.

"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," White House aide Linda Douglass said in a written statement.

"He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals."

The administration seemed to step back from its insistence on such an option over the weekend, with Obama saying it is "not the entirety of health care reform."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president could be "satisfied" without it. And Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that a public insurance plan is "not the essential element."

The move appeared to be a concession to critics, particularly Republican lawmakers who have assailed the idea of the government playing that kind of role. Yet it also stirred up frustration from those on the left who believe such an option is critical.

Former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, a doctor and one-time presidential candidate, told NBC's "Today Show" Monday that he believes a public option "is the entirety of health care reform; it's not the entirety of insurance reform."

A petition on his Web site StandWithDrDean.com reads, "A public option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans and its inclusion is non-negotiable."

Making the issue negotiable might be a necessity for any legislation to pass through the Senate. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, one of six Senate Finance Committee members who have been trying to hammer out the first bipartisan compromise bill, said Sunday a public option simply won't make it through Congress.

"The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for a public option. There never have been," Conrad told "FOX News Sunday."

Instead of a public option, the negotiators are considering a plan proposed by Conrad to create non-profit health insurance cooperatives that could negotiate coverage as a collective for their members.