While the Obama Administration is confident that the coming week will produce the first step in a march to victory on health care reform, at least one Republican is saying the way Democrats are fighting for change is “a political kamikaze mission.”

The public option –long debated and absent from President Barack Obama’s health reform plan – appears to no longer be an option.

In a plan the White House says “bridges the gap” between House and Senate health reform bills, President Barack Obama laid out a comprehensive proposal he feels will make coverage more affordable and accessible, while calling for greater accountability by stakeholders in the market.

Both of Maryland’s senators have gotten behind a last-ditch effort to revive a public, government-run health insurance option by using a controversial legislative procedure known as reconciliation.

Similar to an effort in the U.S. House last month, a Colorado senator is seeking the signatures of his colleagues to urge inclusion of a public health insurance option in comprehensive federal health reform.

Standing before a room of Republican leaders, President Barack Obama urged progress over politics on a number of issues facing Americans, including health care reform.

Joining several states across the nation, Republicans in the Pennsylvania House held a rally Jan. 27 to introduce a pair of bills aimed at opposing possible federal health mandates.

A pair of congressmen are gathering support for the Senate to reconsider its stance on public health insurance program, citing its popularity – both in the U.S. Senate and among American people – as well as its key to health care savings.

Health care reform was front and center the first time President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last year, but moved to the background in his latest address Wednesday night (Jan. 27) as he instead focused on jobs and the nation’s economy.

Having the federal Office of Personnel Management run health exchanges for the uninsured – as the U.S. Senate health reform plan mandates – “does not mesh well” with the agency’s existing responsibilities, said one of the agency’s former directors.