Looks like that's it then. At least now, perhaps people won't blame Mrs C so much for not managing to pass major reform in the 1990s. I guess there are some who will say that this can all be explained by path dependency theory. The trouble is, path dependency theory is so badly and broadly defined, that it can explain everything, and is thus, it seems to me, pretty useless.
SPOTLIGHT: SAYONARA, PUBLIC PLAN?
The Obama administration over the weekend indicated that it would be willing to accept health reform legislation that does not include a public plan option. In an interview on CNN, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Sunday said that the public option was "not the essential element" for reform. She also said that not-for-profit health cooperatives were being developed by the Senate Finance Committee as an alternative to a public option. During a town-hall meeting on Saturday in Grand Junction, Colo., President Obama said that a public option "is not the entirety of health care reform," but rather "just one sliver of it, one aspect of it." Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that "the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the U.S. Senate for the public option, there never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit is, I think, a wasted effort." An unnamed Democrat close to the administration will continue to attempt to persuade lawmakers of the value of a public plan.
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