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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993                   TAG: 9305080300
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

WORK INJURY COST MAY BE PART OF PLAN

Taking her case to an audience steeped in skepticism, Hillary Rodham Clinton set out Friday to persuade the nation's leading executives that the government can provide universal health-care coverage without crippling the economy.

Although short on specifics, Clinton laid out the options her presidential task force is considering to gain control of a $940 billion health system.

Clinton emerged from the private session saying she was "very encouraged" that most businesses would benefit from the plan, which probably will be released next month.

She told the business leaders that the cost of treating workplace injuries and car accidents would be folded into the reform package.

Financing probably would come both from money employers already contribute to health insurance and new taxes - among them a payroll tax that corporate chiefs worry would hurt job creation.

Exactly how much the plan will cost is uncertain because the government has not said what benefits companies will be required to offer their workers. A figure in the tens of billions has been estimated in reports based on including doctor visits, hospitalization, mental health and prescription drugs.

Clinton, who was invited by The Business Council to outline her task force's work, sought to assure the executives that reform would help stabilize and eventually cut health-care costs for businesses.

"We intend to remove a lot of administrative paperwork waste and cost and we intend to stop the `cost shifting,' " she said, "which means that we will no longer have $50 Tylenol bills in hospitals in order to make up for the fact that many people are cared for who make no financial contribution."

Clinton said her audience "asked very specific, detailed questions about how the system would work, and I was very pleased by the conversation. Business people of America . . . have an enormous stake in whether we reform this health-care system."

Before her talk, many worried that the health plan would rely more on new business taxes than cost containment. Afterward, some seemed willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. John E. Bryson, chairman of Southern California Edison Co. said, "She is very focused on cost-effective means."

by CNB