
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994                   TAG: 9402030175
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON HEALTH PLAN HIT

Ignoring an intense lobbying campaign by the Clinton administration, an influential big business group voted Wednesday to support a rival health-care reform plan that does not guarantee insurance coverage for every American.

The action by the Business Roundtable was a significant setback for the White House, which had sought big business's neutrality - if not support. President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton had urged the group to refrain from endorsing a competing plan.

Clinton expected opposition from small businesses to his requirement that all companies pay for health insurance, but had counted on support from large firms that already provide coverage and indirectly subsidize the uninsured.

The Roundtable vote adds to growing concern about chances for passage of the Clinton plan without major changes. A number of other groups, including the American Medical Association, the insurance industry and small business, are opposing major elements of the plan.

Announcing the decision, Roundtable chairman John Ong said the group supports the plan by Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, as a "starting point" for health-care reform, although it has problems with some of the specifics.

The Roundtable is a group of 200 leading corporate CEOs that meets regularly to discuss public policy issues.

Ong, chairman of BFGoodrich, said the Clinton plan relies too heavily on government regulation and would create new government benefit programs without adequate financing.

"The Business Roundtable does not support the Clinton plan in its current form," Ong said.

Privately, administration officials suggested that health-care interests had a lot to do with the group's decision, pointing out that Prudential chairman Robert Winters is also chairman of the Roundtable's health-care task force.

But Ong said the vote by a "substantial majority" reflected the views of business as a whole, not any particular industry.

Cooper said he was pleased. "We already had small business on our side, now we're getting big business," he said. However, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month showed the public prefers Clinton's plan by a wide margin.

Cooper's plan would provide subsidies to help low-income people get coverage and would set up insurance purchasing co-ops for businesses with 100 or fewer workers.

by CNB