Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993 TAG: 9305040154
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We need to get the lawyers out of the doctor-patient relationship," Ira Magaziner, a senior adviser to Clinton, told the National Medical Association, a black doctors' organization.
Magaziner gave no specifics, but the administration is reportedly considering a new concept of "enterprise liability" for malpractice lawsuits, as well as a cap on damages for pain and suffering.
Under enterprise liability, the health care providers would all be covered under the same malpractice policy. Instead of being able to sue individual surgeons and nurses by name along with the hospital, an aggrieved patient could only file a single lawsuit against the entire enterprise.
Magaziner, the main organizer of Clinton's effort to draft a health care plan, denied that he was at odds with government health actuaries over what Clinton's proposals will cost.
The New York Times reported Monday that actuaries from the Health Care Financing Administration have estimated the health plan would cost the government and private sector anywhere from $100 billion to $151 billion a year.
The added costs would primarily be to cover the nation's 37 million uninsured, but the figures also reflect the tab for providing new prescription drug benefits under Medicare, upgrading health programs for the poor and providing some long-term care benefits.
Meanwhile, the country's most powerful senior citizens' group is calling on its 33 million members to swamp the White House with letters demanding that long-term care for the elderly and disabled be part of the health reform package.
The White House considers the support of the American Association of Retired Persons crucial to selling its health reform plan, but it is wrestling with the enormous price of sheltering American families from long-term health care costs.
by CNB