Giving up health-care reform's public option for what, exactly?

PRESIDENT Obama needs to resuscitate his health-care-reform effort but jettisoning his public insurance plan would be a mistake.

The biggest reasons to reform health care is to lower costs and expand access to quality health care. The president has convincingly argued that the public option provides the better route forward.

Yet, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says a public option is not an essential element of reform. Obama now calls it one sliver of an overall effort.

This is a belated development. Until the reform debate was taken over by right-wing machinations, including ludicrous charges of "death panels," a public option was the central tenet of reform.

Growing concern about the public option has the White House on the defensive and counting votes in Congress. Obama risks losing key Democratic support by giving up his plan so he can gain a few more votes.

A reminder: The health-care-reform bill that passed out of the Senate Healthcare Committee includes a public option. Obviously, the president is not alone in believing it is the right choice.

But much like Bill Clinton 16 years ago, Obama fears spending a lot of political capital and ending up with nothing should Congress be unable to agree.

The president should remember the principles he is fighting for.

In June, Obama told Senate Democrats Americans should have the choice of a public-health-insurance option operating alongside private plans to allow for a better range of choices, a more competitive health-care market and to keep insurance companies honest.

Just a month ago, Obama's weekly radio and Internet address underscored the point.

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans — including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest — and choose what's best for your family," the president said.

A week of rowdy town-hall meetings and nervous politicians shouldn't displace these principles.

The president is said to be looking for a compromise, including a network of nonprofit health cooperatives.

Details about these co-ops remain too sketchy to see them as anything more than an idea. Group Health Cooperative here in Washington state offers a strong co-op model. But it's unclear how states would replicate this model, particularly in rural communities.

For now, a public insurance plan remains the standard by which other options should be measured.