A day after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called a government-run insurance program not “essential” to health reform efforts, the White House and others are taking a different stance.

During a briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs downplayed the reaction to Sebelius’ comments, indicating President Barack Obama has said including a public option to compete with private insurers is “his preference.”

“But the president has also said I don’t know how many times if the goals are choice and competition …the reason you have a public option is because you have an insurance market that doesn’t have choice or competition,” Gibbs said. “…If there are other ideas, he’s happy to look at them.”

Gibbs added that the White House has displayed “boring consistency” in its rhetoric over the public option as nothing has changed regarding its inclusion in health reform efforts.

The Senate Finance Committee is the final Congressional body to approve a health care bill as those approved in the House and Senate include some kind of public option to compete with private insurers.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Aug. 16, Sebelius said that choice and competition were key goals of reform for health insurance, but a public option “is not the essential element.”

Raul Grijalva

Meanwhile, Sebelius was the recipient of a letter Aug. 17 from the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), and the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) indicating their strong support for the public option.

The letter included support from 60 members of Congress “firm in their position that any legislation that moves forward through both chambers, and into a final proposal for the president’s signature, MUST contain a public option,” according to the letter.

“We stand in strong opposition to your statement that the public option ‘is not the essential element’ of comprehensive reform,” the authors wrote. “The opportunity to improve access to healthcare is a onetime opportunity. Americans deserve reform that is real – not smoke and mirrors.  We cannot rely solely on the insurance companies’ good faith efforts to provide for our constituents.”

They also said to take the public option off the table “would be a grave error” as passage in the House of Representatives “depends upon inclusion of it.”