Copyright 2000 The Hartford Courant Company
THE
HARTFORD COURANT
January 14, 2000 Friday, STATEWIDE
SECTION: MAIN; Pg. A11
LENGTH: 793 words
HEADLINE:
CONSENSUS MIGHT BE EMERGING ON AIDING UNINSURED
BYLINE: JOHN A. MACDONALD; Courant Staff Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON --
BODY:
Expanding existing government programs for low-income workers and children
could cut the nation's uninsured population in half, two
longtime health care rivals said Thursday.
At a
conference seeking common ground on reducing the uninsured, the
heads of a leading consumer group and an insurance trade organization spoke
optimistically about agreeing on a step-by-step approach for trimming the number
of uninsured, which stands at 44 million. "The uninsured are
clearly a top concern of Americans and their numbers are growing," said Ron
Pollack, executive director of Families USA, the consumer group.
Charles
N. Kahn, president of the Health Insurance Association of America, said there is
strong evidence the health of many Americans is suffering because of the lack of
insurance.
"That is why it is critically important for the health
insurance industry to join with other organizations, regardless of their
philosophical stripes, to find ways to promote health coverage to those who lack
it today," he said.
Pollack and Kahn were on opposite sides in 1993-94
when President Clinton was promoting a top-to-bottom overhaul of the U.S. health
care system. Pollack has adopted a much more incremental approach in recent
months and has found an ally in Kahn, who devised a series of television ads
that helped sink Clinton's proposal.
The issue of the uninsured is
already a major point of debate between Vice President Al Gore and former Sen.
Bill Bradley, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. Kahn, who has
close ties to Republicans, predicted the party's presidential nominee will have
to address the issue, too.
Although Pollack and Kahn appeared to be
moving toward an agreement, representatives of several other groups who spoke at
the conference embraced positions that will be much harder to reconcile.
A representative for the American Nurses Association, for example,
advocated a single, government- run health care system, which is well beyond the
proposal Clinton advocated seven years ago.
On the opposite end of the
political spectrum, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was wary of
any additional government intervention. "Be careful what we ask Congress to do,"
admonished chamber President Thomas J. Donohue.
Pollack and Kahn hope
they can agree on a proposal that would be a major boost to getting action on
the uninsured after this fall's elections. Aides said the two believe they can
come together on specifics but are not there yet. Ideally, some of the six other
groups that spoke at Thursday's conference could then be enticed to join them,
the aides said.
Essentially, Pollack and Kahn are working toward a
proposal that would expand two federal-state health programs -- Medicaid, which
pays for care for the poor, and a newer partnership designed to cover uninsured
children.
The plan they are working on could cover as many as 23 million
people, or more than half of those who are now uninsured.
"We need to
build on what works," Pollack said.
Several speakers obviously were not
satisfied, although they said they would not try to block well- designed
step-by-step improvements.
But Mary E. Foley, president of the American
Nurses Association, said the country could do better. "We need to do more than
sew more pieces on the patchwork quilt of health care in this country," Foley
said.
Foley proposed expanding Medicare, the federal health program for
the elderly, to cover all Americans. Congress considered a similar proposal in
1994 during the debate on Clinton's plan but failed to act on either.
As
Foley spoke, Donohue rolled his eyes and shook his head. When his turn came,
Donohue recommended no expansion of existing government programs. Instead, he
proposed a series of tax changes that he said would give uninsured workers a
better chance of being able to buy their own coverage.
Andrew J. Stern,
president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 700,000
health care workers -- from doctors to nursing home aides -- said he favored
opening up the federal employees health program to the uninsured with the
government paying the premium for low-income people.
"We're not opposed
to incremental changes," Stern said. "They will help some. But they will only
treat symptoms."
Judith Feder, dean of policy studies at Georgetown
University, said she was open to moving in steps after seeing sweeping reform
fail while she was serving as a Clinton aide. "Covering all low-income people is
a major step," Feder said. "That's a real significant change."
Stuart H.
Altman, a Brandeis University health care expert, agreed. "Whether it's
political reality or not, it's moving in the right direction and that's a
welcome change," he said.
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