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Public Views on Health Reform Shape Political Landscape

As Congress works to draft health care reform legislation, the Hotline's Amy Walter and NPR's Julie Rovner assess President Obama's latest remarks on a public insurance option, concerns over the cost of an overhaul and how the public is viewing the debate.

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    Next, more from the president's news conference, this time about health care. He took questions on the public plan idea and the potential costs of reform. Here are some excerpts.


    If we're spending $177 billion over 10 years to subsidize insurance companies under Medicare Advantage when there's no showing that people are healthier using that program than the regular Medicare program, well, that's not a good deal for taxpayers. And we're going to take that money, and we're going to use it to provide better care at a cheaper cost to the American people.

    The public plan I think is an important tool to discipline insurance companies. What we've said is, under our proposal, let's have a system the same way that federal employees do, the same way that members of Congress do, where — we call it an exchange, but you can call it a marketplace — where essentially you've got a whole bunch of different plans.



    … private insurers out of business?



    Now, if it turns out that the public plan, for example, is able to reduce administrative costs significantly, then, you know what, I'd like the insurance companies to take note and say, "Hey, if the public plan can do that, why can't we?" And that's good for everybody in the system, and I don't think there should be any objection to that.



    Gwen Ifill takes it from there.