Aides say Obama may sign bill without a public option

WASHINGTON - President Obama is taking a wait-and-see approach as congressional negotiators work for a deal on a health-care overhaul, and will not demand that the final bill include a government-run plan, though that's his preference, the president's top advisers said yesterday.

"There will be compromise. There will be legislation, and it will achieve our goals: helping people who have insurance get more security, more accountability for the insurance industry, helping people who don't have insurance get insurance they can afford, and lowering the overall cost of the system," aide David Axelrod said.

Asked on ABC's This Week if Obama would sign a bill that ended the antitrust exemption for the insurance industry and allow caps on premiums, Axelrod said, "We'll see what Congress does."

A 1945 law lets states regulate insurers without federal interference.

Some Democratic lawmakers proposed ending the exemption after an insurance industry group released a study critical of the reform effort. The study was disputed as inaccurate.

Axelrod was similarly noncommittal when asked whether Obama would support taxing some insurance benefits, a proposal that has brought criticism from labor unions and others.

"I think that this thing is going to be adjusted as we go along," he said, "so let's see what the final proposal says before we talk about what the president will or won't sign."

Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Obama believed the public plan was still the "best possible choice," but she said he is not demanding it.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who is deeply involved with congressional Democrats in trying to merge the various committee proposals, also appeared to set aside the public option.

"It's not the defining piece of health care. It's whether we achieve both cost control, coverage, as well as the choice," Emanuel said.

The White House and lawmakers are trying to blend five House and Senate committee versions of health-care legislation into a bill that will pass both houses, where near unanimous Republican opposition is expected.

House Democrats are insisting there be a public option in competition with private insurance to drive down the cost of coverage.

In the Senate, Republicans and some Democrats oppose that, meaning inclusion of the public option would foreclose winning the 60 votes needed to advance a bill.

The bill approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee drew the only Republican vote yet cast with Democrats on the health care overhaul. Even then, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine) did not commit to supporting a final version.

Labor groups say plans to finance health-care reform by taxing insurance companies would end up costing middle-income Americans because the industry would simply pass along the taxes through higher premiums.

Jarrett appeared on NBC's Meet the Press; Emanuel was on CNN's State of the Union.