THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603070008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Health-care-reform legislation of the sort now pending before Congress would probably have become law long ago if the bloated and misguided effort of the Clinton administration hadn't intervened. Now this more-modest reform may be imperiled by the politics of a presidential year. That would be unfortunate.
Many of the problems that most Americans agree need to be fixed by health-care reform are addressed in the bipartisan legislation of Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum and Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The Buchanan run for the presidency, like the Perot race in 1992, has reminded politicians that average Americans are concerned about their economic well-being, afraid of losing a job, worried about a declining standard of living and especially troubled at the prospect of the reality of not being able to obtain affordable health care.
The Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation tackles some of the issues that cause anxiety. It would guarantee access to health insurance for those who are laid off or retire early, though it doesn't guarantee that the price of that coverage will be low. Some 25 million people a year find themselves between coverage.
The bill would also prevent health insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and assure policyholders the right to renew existing coverage. Taken together these measures could help end so-called job lock (when workers fail to change jobs lest they lose health-insurance).
The American economy has always prospered in part because the mobility of workers has made it dynamic. But fear of losing health coverage has started to lock employees into jobs they don't want and ought to leave. That's bad for workers, the businesses that employ them and the economy. By making coverage more portable, workers may become more mobile again.
Unlike the elaborate reform proposed by President Clinton, Kassebaum-Kennedy has modest aspirations. It targets a few flaws in the current health-insurance system and tries to make specific changes, not global reforms. It's an effort worth supporting. by CNB