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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993                   TAG: 9309030099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON SPEEDS HEALTH TIMETABLE

Sharply accelerating its timetable for achieving universal health coverage, the White House said Thursday that "the vast majority" of Americans would have guaranteed insurance by 1996 and everyone else would be covered by December 1997 if President Clinton's reform plan is approved.

The goal of expediting coverage to the nation's estimated 37 million uninsured may prove politically popular on its face, but also may sharply raise the initial price tag for health care reform, perhaps by tens of billions of dollars.

The administration also ruled out short-term price controls.

President Clinton vowed to bring down health care costs but insisted, "I don't think we have to have a bureaucratic system of price controls to do it." Drug company stocks rose on the news.

He rejected suggestions the reforms could cost America jobs, saying, "I believe that this will be a job generator if we implement it sensibly and gradually and over time we slow the rate of growth of health care costs."

Only two weeks ago, Ira Magaziner, the president's senior health policy analyst, said universal coverage was not likely until the year 2003 - a pace that would give small businesses time to adjust to a federal requirement that all employers provide insurance to employees.

The chief rationale for the seven- to nine-year delay was to let savings build up from other reforms so they could be converted into federal subsidies that would help small businesses, low-wage earners and the unemployed buy insurance.

"But the president needs the damned thing [universal coverage] to be at least on the horizon when he runs for re-election. Otherwise you won't see this fully implemented until Jack Kemp's second term," said a leading health policy analyst, referring to a potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996.

The president and his top aides spent much of Thursday refining his overhaul proposals, which are to be released this month.

A key sticking point has been how to pay for the plan. The latest incarnation seeks to come up with $16 billion from so-called "sin taxes."

Higher cigarette and tobacco taxes have long been expected, and alcohol taxes also have been considered an option. CBS reported that Clinton had signed off on a dollar-a-pack increase in cigarette tax and higher liquor taxes were possible.

White House officials said no decision had been made.

by CNB