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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994                   TAG: 9409220040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium

DOLE SAYS 'MAYBE NEXT YEAR'

HEALTH CARE REFORM has been pronounced dead this session by Sen. Bob Dole. But even within his own party, some have not given up hope.

Health reform appears dead for this session of Congress, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole said Monday.

``Time has almost run out. I don't see anything happening this year,'' Dole told the Independent Institute. ``Maybe next year we'll have a more rational approach to health care.

``Nothing went wrong. It went right,'' said the Kansas Republican. The American people made the judgment that they ``don't want any of these big, big packages,'' he added.

Even as Dole pronounced a requiem for reform, a bloc of Senate moderates was still laboring on a possible compromise. But even some moderates seemed to be looking to next year.

Dole said of the ``mainstream'' group led by Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., ``I can tell you, if they bring out some complicated bill, it's not going to go anywhere.''

Chafee and others were huddling later with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to discuss their attempt to put together a bill that could command at least 60 votes.

Mitchell said he and Dole had a brief private exchange about health reform and needed to talk further.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, last week called for the Chafee group to give up, saying its approach would harm Medicare and Medicaid.

But Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., the top Republican on Finance, said, ``It would be possible still to pass a very skinny bill. But it would be skinnier than the `mainstream' plan.''

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the moderates were encouraged by preliminary Congressional Budget Office figures indicating their plan could cut the deficit by $56 billion over a decade and boost coverage to 93 percent or 94 percent. It is built around subsidies, market reforms and changes in deductibility of health expenses.

They are still trying to work out differences with Mitchell over drug coverage for the elderly, long-term care and what size companies could self-insure, he said.

The Chafee group initially claimed it could cut the deficit by $100 billion.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said: ``We're trying to develop some agreement to at least be able to put a bill down that we can take to the American people. Whether it's voted on this year or not is another story.''

by CNB