Word: optional
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...last week of July, news leaked out of Capitol Hill that the President's proposal for a so-called public option on health care was unlikely to make it into the Senate Finance Committee bill. As recently as June, Obama had told a gathering of doctors in Chicago that there "needs to be a public option" in the health-care-reform bill, to help control insurance costs. But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has declined this week to say whether Obama is still fighting for a public health plan over the alternate proposal for a "co-op," which would attempt...
Obama himself, meanwhile, has expanded his own definition of public option to include the nonprofit model, which is not publicly run in the classic sense. In an interview Tuesday, July 28, with TIME, he said that what mattered was how the program would work, not how involved the government would be. "Obviously sort of the legal structure of it is less important than practically how can it operate," the President said. Many Democratic leaders have expressed fear that the co-op idea would have only a marginal impact on controlling private-insurance-company costs...
...lifesaving treatments. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already allocated $2 million to fight the idea of a public plan that would compete with private insurers; two liberal groups - Health Care for America Now and the National Physicians Alliance - have run ads in six states arguing that a public option is essential. "August," says White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, "has both peril and opportunity...
...Some Obama allies fear that in his eagerness to get a deal - especially one that can attract Republican votes - he is giving away too much. The Senate Finance Committee, for example, is on the verge of a deal that would jettison the public option in favor of nonprofit, consumer-owned health-care co-ops, which would mean far less government involvement than many liberals would like to see. The Finance Committee, whose chairman, Max Baucus of Montana, is working closely with ranking Republican Charles Grassley, appears poised to omit any requirement that employers provide coverage to their workers (though they...
There appear to be few incentives for Iran to sign such declarations and allow potential agitators back home, especially now. Relocation to other countries is a more likely option, especially given that the European Union and Britain have removed the organization from their terrorist lists, potentially paving the way for the MEK's transfer. But that remains to be seen...