No more reform. Now it's an "overhaul."

From the Associated Press:

Bowing to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Barack Obama's administration signaled Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

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Three things stand out from that one paragraph. WHAT Republican pressure? How come it's the first time we have heard of it? Second, it's no longer health care "reform." And, third, they are backing off of a "new health care system," a tacit admission that they weren't just going to "fix" the old one but gut it.

Even the URL for the story retreats off from describing the complete gutting of our health care system. ap/us_health_care_overhaul

Now it's an overhaul.

Their generosity spurned, the administration is ready to "abandon" the idea of GIVING us an option for their insurance. The government wasn't going to give Americans the option of government-run insurance. They were going to mandate it. Because they could. Or thought they could. Because they had the votes.

The co-ops are still problematic. They will be the Fannie Mae and Freddy Macs of health insurance. Prone to the same kind of political intereference that directed those two corporations to make 125% mortgage loans to people without down payments.

"Affordable health" insurance like "affordable housing" will cost U.S. taxpayers trillions just for the bureacracy alone. All of em unionized. All of them with An Attitude. You get lip now from an insurance company, you look for someone with a better human skills. Or more favorable coverage. At renewal or signup time you sign up with someone else. Try that with SEIU thugs at the government-run health insurance offices.

Because once government controls the health insurance industry, you can bet they will direct you to any HMO or PPO they think is cheapest. (Or, more likely, to the organization that donates the most amount of money to whichever party is in charge of the White House.)

As for keeping your private insurance, that's fine if you select and pay for your own. But what about the millions who get insurance through their workplace? Even retirees from the workplace? Union workers and their retirees? It's the end of private insurance for those people because it's a cost that businesses do not want. Look for them to exit at the first opportunity.

Just because the administration says they are abandoning the public option, don't believe it. Don't look for any capitulation or even compromises on their part. In an opinion piece in the New York Times today, Obama wrote, ""In the coming weeks, the cynics and the naysayers will continue to exploit fear and concerns for political gain," he wrote. "But for all the scare tactics out there, what's truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing."

Recent polls show 54% show people think that's EXACTLY the right thing to do - nothing. (That figure rises to 66% for those not affiliated with either party.)

Bizarrely the opinion piece is signed Barack Obama. At the foot of the article it says, "Barack Obama is the president of the United States." In case, I guess, you are senile, one of those old people who barely missed being counseled every five years by your doctor acting under government orders. Which sounded suspiciously like nagging.

UPDATE: They're backtracking already.

An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform.

I guess gutting our health care system is still their plan.