Healthcare idea has public plan only as backup

As President Obama faces conflicting pressures from the left and the right over his healthcare proposal, White House officials are investigating a possible compromise under which the government would offer its own health plan only if private insurers failed to provide affordable coverage. The idea of such a backup plan has emerged in negotiations between the White House and Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, on whom the White House rests its hopes of finding a middle ground, according to the New York Times.