Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406290055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``Today ... for the first time ever, a committee in each house of Congress has reported a bill that guarantees universal coverage,'' Clinton said, referring to a similiar bill passed by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee three weeks ago.
The president said the House Education and Labor Committee had broken the ``chokehold'' of special interests. But deadlocks in two other committees, and increasing difficulties in a third, suggested health care reform this year is far from a sure thing.
The Education and Labor Committee, one of the most liberal committees in Congress, approved its comprehensive bill, 26-17, without Republican support and with the defection of two Democrats.
The victory guaranteed that Democratic leaders in both chambers can bring the president's bill to the floor.
But the Senate Finance Committee is deadlocked as a group of moderate Republicans and Democrats struggles to craft a centrist plan they hope could pass the panel. The House Energy and Commerce Committee also is stymied, lacking a majority for any plan, and some Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee began to complain Thursday that their panel was producing a bill that would be too radical to pass the House.
The House Education and Labor Committee bill provides insurance to all Americans to pay for doctor and hospital bills, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse coverage and some dental benefits. About 80 percent of the cost would be paid by employers, 20 percent by workers. The poor and small businesses would receive government subsidies.
The committee ``has brought us one step closer to achieving our goal of universal coverage - guaranteed private insurance for every American that can never be taken away,'' Clinton said.
But the committee's senior Republican, William Goodling of Pennsylvania, said the bill adds burdensome government mandates and more bureaucracy and will increase the federal deficit $120 billion over five years, about $50 billion more than the original Clinton bill.
``There isn't a chance in hell that this plan can pass the Congress of the United States,'' Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis., said recently.
After approving the modified Clinton bill, the Education and Labor Committee also reported to the floor ``without recommendation'' a Canadian-style government-run health insurance plan financed by taxes. The vote was 22-21, with six Democrats joining 15 Republicans in opposition.
Backers of the so-called ``single payer'' bill had threatened to oppose the Clinton measure unless their plan also was given a chance for an airing and vote by the full House.
Before approving the modified Clinton bill, the committee defeated, 25-16, an effort by Rep. Ron Klink, D-Penn. to forbid health insurance policies from paying for abortion except when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest or endangered the life of the mother.
Klink, Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and others argued that because all Americans would be required to buy the health policies, mandatory inclusion of coverage for abortion would require people to finance a procedure they find morally repugnant.
Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, and others said 65 percent of women now are covered for abortion in their existing health plans and the Klink amendment would wipe out that coverage.
by CNB