No Retreat, No Surrender.

From ThinkProgess:

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg News, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she’s open to the idea of dropping a public health insurance option in favor of a medical-insurance cooperative. “You could theoretically design a co-op plan that had the same attributes as a public plan,” Sebelius said.

The leading co-op proposal in the Senate, offered by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), does not share the attributes of a public plan. Instead, Conrad’s proposal would create multiple state or regional non-profits as a competitor to the private insurance market. As Howard Dean has said of this plan: “The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it.”

Bloomberg’s Al Hunt asked Sebelius, “[If] you’re willing to compromise on your notion of a public plan…what’s non-negotiable?” Sebelius responded that the final bill has to “have a comprehensive approach that lowers costs. That’s non-negotiable.” She added reform also “needs to provide coverage for everyone.”

Here she is today on Bloomberg TV:

Why is Sebelius talking about a co-op compromise today? Screw compromise. According to Politico, she defended a public option yesterday, specifically as it relates to conservative's claims of rationed care:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the government-run program favored by President Obama against arguments that it would ration care.

“I don’t think there’s anything about the public option that would ration care. Unfortunately care is being rationed each and everyday right now. Often private insurance companies stand between a patient and a doctor deciding what treatment can be provided,” she said on Fox News Sunday. “We also have a situation where a lot of people are told that they can’t have insurance because they have a preexisting condition.”

Secretary Sebelius, why compromise with a group of Republicans who have absolutely no intention of supporting anything that upsets the status quo? Hell, we have enough problems with a handful of Democrats whose pockets are so full of insurance company cash that they tip over every time they walk through the doors of the Capitol.