WASHINGTON – Former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, a leading figure in the liberal wing of his party, said Monday he doubts there can be meaningful health care reform without a direct government role.

Dean urged the Obama administration to stand by statements made early on in the debate in which it steadfastly insisted that such a public option was indispensable to genuine change, saying that Medicare and the Veterans Administration are "two very good programs that have been around for a long time."

Dean appeared on morning news shows Monday amid increasing indications the Obama White House is retreating from the public option in the face of vocal opposition from Republicans and some vocal participants at a town-hall-style meetings around the country.

The Obama administration's health secretary said Sunday that the president is willing to accept nonprofit insurance cooperatives rather than a government-run option as part of health-overhaul legislation, a major concession that could attract the support of some conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans who now oppose the effort.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on CNN's "State of the Union" that while President Obama "continues to be very supportive of some options for consumers" in the health insurance market, a government-run public-option plan is "not the essential element"...

President Barack Obama and his top aides are signaling that they’re prepared to drop a government insurance option from a final health-reform deal if that’s what’s needed to strike a compromise on Obama’s top legislative priority.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday that the public option was “not the essential element” of the overhaul. A day earlier, Obama downplayed the public option during a Colorado town hall meeting, saying it was “just one sliver” of the debate...

A Republican leader in the U.S. Senate says the healthcare proposals being debated in Congress "miss the point" that most Americans like the healthcare they have, but the cost of that care is a problem.

Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) opposes the "pay or play" mandate for small businesses and employers under the proposed government-run healthcare option, and he believes the government option will ultimately leave 119-million Americans with no option but the government plan.

Although there is little agreement between Republicans and Democrats on the public healthcare option, Cornyn contends there is a lot of consensus on what can be done to bend the cost curve...

Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley said Thursday that the Senate Finance Committee dropped consideration of end-of-life provisions similar to those that have prompted claims by opponents that the House health overhaul bill authorizes so-called "death panels."

Grassley, one of the six bipartisan negotiators who have been engaged in talks for weeks on the content of the Finance bill, said in a statement the panel has been trying to avoid "unintended consequences" by working methodically through the consequences of policy options.

"We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly," Grassley said in a statement. "Maybe others can defend a bill like the Pelosi bill that leaves major issues open to interpretation but I can't"...

One of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate says while it's apparent that Barack Obama and the Democrats are overreaching in their efforts to pass massive big-government programs, the GOP must offer a more positive solution that the American people can trust.

At a crowded town hall meeting on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter heard from speaker after speaker who accused him of trampling on their constitutional rights or allowing the government to take over healthcare. As Democratic lawmakers like Specter have returned to their states this month, many have faced angry crowds questioning President Obama's healthcare overhaul...

(CNSNews.com) - In 2003, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama received a big round of applause for telling a gathering of the AFL-CIO, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer, universal health care plan.”

This week, speaking at a town hall gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., President Obama said, “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive...

WASHINGTON — The raucous protests at congressional town hall meetings have succeeded in fueling opposition to proposed health care bills among some Americans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — particularly the independents who tend to be at the center of political debates.

In a survey of 1,000 adults taken Tuesday, 34% say the sometimes heated protests at sessions held by members of Congress have made them more sympathetic to the protesters' views; 21% say they are less sympathetic.

Independents by 2-1, 35%-16%, say they are more sympathetic to the protesters now...