Privately,Barack Obama strongly backs public option

By Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook,Chicago Tribune

Despite months of seeming ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan,the Obama White House has launched an intensifying behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea in the weeks just ahead.

President Barack Obama has long advocated a so-called public option,while at the same time repeatedly expressing openness to other ways to offer consumers a potentially more affordable alternative to health plans sold by private insurers.

But now,senior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,D-Nev.,plans to bring to the Senate floor later this month,according to senior Democratic congressional aides.

Among those regularly in the meetings are Obama’s top health care adviser,Nancy-Ann DeParle,aides to Reid,and Senate finance and health committee staff,both of which developed health care bills.

At the same time,Obama has been reaching out personally to rank-and-file Senate Democrats,telephoning more than a dozen lawmakers in the last week to press the case for action.

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