Worth the fight

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Until this week the White House held up well against relentless Republican attacks on its support for a government health insurance program whose low cost and inclusiveness would enable millions more people to be covered.

Such a program has been a central theme of the Obama administration’s drive for health care reform and is popularly known as the “public option.”

After long supporting such a program, President Barack Obama this week, along with key members of his administration, signaled that he might give up on it.

“The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform,” Obama said.

While that may be, a main objective of the administration’s push for health care reform has been to get more people signed up for health insurance. A public option is the best way to do that.

Getting more people insured is important. Without insurance, only minimal care is often rendered even if a patient has an urgent need for more than that. More insured people would reduce stress on hospital emergency rooms and stem the spread of infectious diseases. As overall health improved, absenteeism rates at schools and businesses would decrease.

Republicans, as evidenced by their silence regarding alternatives to Obama’s vision, are content with the failing status quo. And their recent demagoguery on this issue appears to be working. Polls taken in June showed more than 70 percent of Americans favoring a public option, but an NBC News poll released Tuesday showed only 43 percent favoring it.

Some conservative Democrats are suggesting that patient-owned, nonprofit health cooperatives would be a good alternative. But how untested start-ups would break into the insurance field dominated by monolithic companies is a big unknown.

Our view is that the Democrats should stop feeling so pressured by the Republicans and remember that elections matter. Obama should stay with his vision for America’s health care. And congressional Democrats who believe in the public option should keep fighting for it.