Around the World: United States

Public option optional?

President Barack Obama's health secretary is suggesting the White House is ready to accept nonprofit insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run public option in a health overhaul plan. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said yesterday that Obama still believes "there should be choice and competition" in the health insurance market - but that a public option is "not the essential element." Obama has been pressing for a health insurance re-organization to help cover the nation's nearly 50 million uninsured.

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