Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 1, 1994 TAG: 9402010114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole said Republicans were open to compromise, but not to "turn the system upside down."
GOP governors welcomed the president's overture, but said there was still a major disagreement over Clinton's insistence on making all employers pay for health insurance.
The governors, after a two-hour closed-door session at the White House, said Clinton told them he was flexible on how to control medical costs and on his plan to force most Americans into new, exclusive insurance-purchasing alliances.
South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell, chairman of the National Governors' Association, said Clinton made "very clear that he wants to maintain employer mandates." That is a real obstacle for Republicans, he said.
Dole, addressing hospital executives, charged that the White House was "more interested in finding villains than solutions," but acknowledged, "we do need health-care reform."
The Kansas senator recited a list of changes that Republicans can support: requiring individuals to get coverage, setting up voluntary purchasing cooperatives, simplifying billing, and guaranteeing renewal and portability of insurance while limiting exclusions for pre-existing conditions.
"They may not turn the system upside down as some envision at the White House, but [they] will make a big, big difference," Dole said.
"What I and my colleagues refuse to accept is the destruction of the best health-care delivery system in the world . . . in the guise of making health care available to all," Dole said.
Later in the day, the governors amended their policy to urge Congress at least to adopt this year such reforms as electronic billing, making insurance portable, subsidies for low-income families and requiring employers to make a core benefit package available for workers to buy.
The White House first resisted that change because it fell short of Clinton's demand for an employer mandate and universal coverage. But Democratic governors agreed to back it with the White House's blessing after the governors called it "a minimum" of what Congress should enact this year. Republicans also conceded the system should be employer-based.
Clinton has threatened to veto any bill that does not guarantee private insurance for all Americans. He did not say when the guarantee would have to kick in, and White House officials have said they are willing to discuss a phase-in longer than the 1998 deadline specified in Clinton's bill.
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat and vice chairman of the governors, said that if the White House is willing to give on timing and on spending limits, the Republicans need to reciprocate on universal coverage.
"They have to be willing to move on financing, and they've got to either support a tax increase or an employer mandate of some sort," said Dean, a medical doctor. He called the mandate "the most difficult issue to crack."
In other developments:
A study in the health-policy journal Health Affairs said medical costs will still climb 5 percent a year, even if Clinton and Congress can figure out how to squeeze all the waste from hospitals and other acute care.
The Wyatt Co., a consulting firm, estimated in a study for the Business Council that the premiums for Clinton's plan would have to be 18 percent higher than the White House estimated: $2,285 for individuals instead of $1,932, and $5,155 for a two-adult family instead of $4,360.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB