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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993                   TAG: 9309190123
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HEALTH REFORM UNSTOPPABLE?

It has been called the most dramatic social initiative in America since FDR's New Deal, the largest overhaul ever of this nation's health care system.

This week, President Clinton makes good on his inaugural week promise to propose sweeping reforms of the health care system with a single lofty goal: to ensure affordable medical coverage for all.

The plan that Clinton will outline Wednesday night is certain to generate months - perhaps years - of debate and undergo countless revisions. Nonetheless, the nation appears headed inexorably toward major changes in its health care system.

Clinton's Health Security Act - developed with the hands-on tutelage of his most trusted adviser, Hillary Rodham Clinton - aims to achieve his goals of universal coverage, comprehensive benefits, affordable insurance and less paperwork by setting up regional health alliances where most businesses and individuals would purchase their health coverage. The set-up would vary from state to state, but no one could be turned away.

Heeding Americans' demand that they be free to choose their doctors, Clinton's "managed competition" would let people pick among health plans - from health maintenance organizations to more expensive fee-for-service plans in which people select their doctors.

All plans would offer a broad set of standard benefits, which the White House contends would be better than most existing coverage. Look for more preventive care services, expanded long-term care benefits, better mental health coverage, prescription drugs for the elderly.

Figuring out how to pay for all of this was the hard part for Clinton.

Workers and employers would pick up most of the bill. In most cases, employers would pay 80 percent of average premium costs, workers the rest. Federal subsidies would help low-wage workers and small businesses.

The White House estimates that on average, a single worker would pay $360 a year for coverage and a family $840. Beyond that, there would be a $1,500 annual limit on an individual's out-of-pocket expenses, $3,000 for a family. The government, too, would have to come up with more money, an extra $350 billion through 2000.

by CNB