BELL: HEALTH-CARE REFORM NOT AT HAND

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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993                   TAG: 9301240179
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
BELL: HEALTH-CARE REFORM NOT AT HAND
State Sen. Brandon Bell doesn't expect the General Assembly to approve any major reform in health care this session.
Bell, R-Roanoke County, said Saturday he expects the state legislature to wait and see what Congress will do on health care.
A member of the Senate's Education and Health Committee, Bell met Saturday with a Roanoke Valley Health Advisory Panel that he has appointed to advise him on health-care issues.
The 25-member panel includes doctors, hospital administrators, nurses, business owners and others.
Bell said he has used the committee to keep himself abreast of health-care issues.
The group reviewed several bills on several specific health-care issues, but decided to hold off on making recommendations on reform, he said.
"It would be no point in trying to come up with something right now," Bell said. He will meet with the panel again after the General Assembly session ends and Congress takes up the issue.
On another issue, Bell said he supports the move to lower the blood alcohol content required for conviction of drunken driving.
Bell also supports parts of Gov. Douglas Wilder's gun-control package, although he has not taken a position on the governor's proposal to limit a person to the purchase of one gun a month.
Some GOP legislators are trying to negotiate a bipartisan package with Democrats on the gun issue, he said, adding it could be announced in the next few days.
Bell said he expects the bipartisan proposal to deal with several issues, not just the purchase of guns.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB