Via the New York Times:

President Obama on Tuesday affirmed his support for the creation of a government-sponsored health insurance plan, but he acknowledged that such a plan would sharply reduce the chances for Republican support of legislation to overhaul the health care system, Democratic senators said.

…

In response to a question from Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, Mr. Obama said that it was important to include a public plan option and that such a plan could help control health costs.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, one of two dozen Democratic senators who met with Mr. Obama, said the president “spoke very enthusiastically about a public plan” that would compete directly with private insurers. The president’s words were comforting to Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

“The sentiment in the room, with the president and the rest of us, was that a public plan option will keep the insurance industry honest, will give people more choices in their health care and can save significant amounts of money,” Mr. Brown said.

Also of note, Obama reconfirms that rolling back Bush’s tax cuts is a better way to pay for health care:

Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, said Mr. Obama indicated that he “might consider” the idea of taxing some employer-provided health benefits, a proposal favored by Mr. Baucus.

“It’s on the table,” Mr. Baucus said. “It’s an option.”

The White House pushed back, saying Mr. Obama “made it very clear” that he preferred his own revenue proposals. Mr. Obama campaigned against taxing health benefits last year. Labor unions and many employers adamantly oppose a limit on tax-free health benefits.

The administratioin is firmly on the side of quality, affordable health care for all. As is huge swaths of Congress. We’re going to win this thing, folks.

UPDATE:

In a letter Obama just sent to Chairmen Kennedy and Baucus, he again reaffirms his support for his campaign proposal of a public health insurance option (emphasis mine):

The plans you are discussing embody my core belief that Americans should have better choices for health insurance, building on the principle that if they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it, while seeing their costs lowered as our reforms take hold. But for those who don’t have such options, I agree that we should create a health insurance exchange — a market where Americans can one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for them, in the same way that Members of Congress and their families can. None of these plans should deny coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition, and all of these plans should include an affordable basic benefit package that includes prevention, and protection against catastrophic costs. I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.

Obama also has a passage on the urgency of reform, which would seem to indicate he opposes measures like the “trigger” for a public health insurance option, that would force Americans to wait for the health care crisis to get worse before giving them real change:

We simply cannot afford to postpone health care reform any longer. This recognition has led an unprecedented coalition to emerge on behalf of reform — hospitals, physicians, and health insurers, labor and business, Democrats and Republicans. These groups, adversaries in past efforts, are now standing as partners on the same side of this debate.

Again, the administration is firmly on our side on health care. It has to be done right and it has to be done now.

(also posted at the NOW! blog)

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