THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408100664
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
If you're trying to make your voice heard as Congress decides on health care reform, join the crowd.
As the Senate began debate Tuesday on a mind-boggling array of schemes for changing the way Americans pay for healing, the Capitol was besieged by armies of doctors, nurses, patients and insurers demanding to be heard.
Individuals and groups, wearing buttons with slogans such as ``Single-payer NOW'' and ``Say NO to Government-run health care,'' roamed the legislative office buildings, pressing their points with any senator or congressman they could grab. Thousands more called in their sentiments, or tried to; the phone lines in some Senate offices were so clogged that getting through became next to impossible.
As always, organized special interests are playing a prominent role in the calling and cajoling. But they're not the only ones. ``We're getting a lot of valuable calls from citizens,'' Virginia Sen. John W. Warner said.
A Republican who calls health care ``the single most importantand difficult issue to be debated in the United States Senate in the 16 years I've been here,'' Warner is a co-sponsor of the reform plan being advanced by Senate GOP leader Bob Dole. But he also is among those lawmakers who are publicly undecided on the more far-reaching plan presented last week by Majority Leader George Mitchell and embraced by President Clinton.
The Mitchell bill backs away from Clinton's demand that any plan guarantee insurance coverage for all but specifies that if 5 percent or more of Americans are not covered by the year 2000, a special commission will send Congress recommendations on achieving 100 percent coverage. Dole's bill includes no requirement for universal coverage.
Mitchell's bill also scales back Clinton's original plan to have most employers bear 80 percent of the cost of employee health plans; employers could be required to bear up to half of those costs after the turn of the century. Again, the Republican alternative is less comprehensive and is friendlier to business; it would not require employers to pay for coverage but would specify that coverage must be offered to everyone.
Warner's office fielded almost 500 calls on health reform on Monday and got almost 1,300 letters on the subject last week. A tally of the Monday calls indicated sentiment running strongly against the administration and considerable support for delaying any action until after the congressional recess now scheduled to begin Aug. 20.
His big question is ``how is it to be paid for,'' Warner said of the Mitchell bill. Warner's past statements have been strongly opposed to new taxes for health reform; one Republican analysis of the Mitchell bill being circulated Tuesday said it would include 17 new levies.
Virginia's other senator, Democrat Charles S. Robb, also is among the undecided. His office is keeping a running tally of the calls and on Tuesday reported it had received almost 1,200 just on the subject of universal coverage - the centerpiece of Clinton's campaign for reform. Robb's office provided a sample of his mail on the subject, on condition that the identities of his correspondents remain confidential. ``I am deeply concerned about the proposed cuts in Medicare funding. . . '' one elderly Virginian's handwritten note read. ``Even at the current low reimbursement rates, many physicians will not accept Medicare patients.''
Another writer, who identified himself as a retired small business manager, counseled Robb to ``take the time to examine the long term effects of the passage of a health care bill.'' He and his wife ``are very happy with our current health care plan and do not view health care as a right,'' he said. ``The only rights we have are those given to us by our constitution, the rest of them we must earn.''
Peggy Wilhide, Robb's press secretary, said the calls and mail range from statements obviously orchestrated by special interest groups to the individual messages of patients and health care professionals.
One of the latter group, whose letter was in the package provided by Robb's office, urged the senator's support for a Canadian-style ``single-payer plan'' with all health care financed by the government.
If that fails, the writer continued, using capital letters to pound home his view, ``as your constituent I urge you to to vote to pass health care legislation that GUARANTEES COMPREHENSIVE AND AFFORDABLE COVERAGE for quality health and mental health care.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
REACHING SENATORS
Sen. Jesse Helms
Phone: (202) 224-6342
Room 403
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Sen. Lauch Faircloth
Phone: (202) 224-3154
Room 702
Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
by CNB