Reactions are starting to trickle in to the Obama administration’s suggestion that it might take the public health care option off the negotiating table and consider a non-profit cooperative instead — and sure enough, the White House is getting hit from the right and the left.

From the left, former Democratic Party chair Howard Dean said the public option is essential to the success of any health care plan and to its chances of passing in Congress in the first place.

“I don’t think it can pass without the public option,” the 2004 presidential candidate said on CBS’ This Morning. “There are too many people who understand, including the president himself, the public option is absolutely linked to reform.”

From the right comes the Cato Institute. The libertarian think tank says the proposed health care co-op is just another version of the public option.

“The definition of a cooperative is a health plan governed by its enrollees,” says Cato’s Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies. “Since a government chartered co-op won’t have any enrollees at first, it will be governed like any other government program.”

In his defense of the public option, Dean cited two examples of public health programs: Medicare and the Veterans Administration system.