President Obama in July of 2009:

The conference then is going to be the place where these differences get ironed out and that’s where, you know, my bottom line will remain: does this cover all Americans, does it drive down costs both in the public sector and the private sector over the long term so that it’s sustainable, does it improve quality, does it emphasize prevention and wellness, does it have a serious package of insurance reforms that insure that people aren’t losing health care because of a pre-existing condition or changing jobs or losing their jobs, are we giving relief to small business, do we have serious options — a serious public option in place. Those are the kinds of benchmarks I’m going to be using…

Joe Sudbay has much more on the background of this.