The report in the Wall Street Journal that President Obama is preparing a $250 billion backup plan in case his trillion-dollar health-care overhaul fails is both encouraging and discouraging. It is encouraging that he is finally willing to show some flexibility and recognize the reality that his health plan is unpopular and likely headed for failure. It is discouraging in that the admittedly sketchy elements of the plan leaked to the Journal — expansions of Medicaid and SCHIP, as well as a proposal to require insurers to let children stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26 — will do little to address the underlying problems of a high-cost health system.

What the president’s proposal would do is reduce the size of the uninsured by increasing the number of people with government-sponsored coverage. As long as President Obama is willing to look at other ideas, let’s hope he will be open to some of the cost-saving ones Republicans will be bringing to the table.