Editorial: No more delays on health care

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 9:47 a.m.

Despite repeated efforts by the GOP leadership in Congress to kill health care reform, the issue has an amazing resilience. The reason health care won't go away -- to the chagrin of many Republicans -- is that the public supports measures to improve health care. A new poll, conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, shows that health care continues to resonate. For instance, the poll found that 72 percent of registered voters, who participated in this survey about health care issues in the presidential campaign, were in support of a patient's bill of rights, which would include the right to sue an HMO if they're unfairly denied coverage. Even when asked if they would support a patient's bill of rights if it added as much as $200 a year to their annual premiums, support still was strong: 53 percent favor the l egislation and just 31 percent oppose it.

President Clinton not only is going to fight again this year for passage of a patient's bill of rights, he also outlined on Wednesday an array of health care initiatives -- totaling $110 billion over 10 years -- that would benefit working families. The agenda is impressive, ranging from a reduction of those who are uninsured to providing tax credits that help offset expensive insurance polices. The part of the plan that would have the biggest impact on reducing the number of uninsured is a proposal to expand an existing federal program, which provides health insurance for children from families with low incomes, to also include their parents. This would cost $76 billion over a decade, but it importantly would provide health insurance for an additional 4 million Americans.

Clinton also wants to offer tax credits for individuals and businesses in an effort to get them insured as well. For example, the president is seeking a 20 percent tax credit for small businesses, who currently don't provide health care for their employees, so they can buy health insurance through purchasing groups. Another tax break, which would cost $28 billion over 10 years, would offer a tax credit of up to $3,000 for people who have long-term health care needs. This tax credit triples the incentive that Clinton proposed last year. Taken together, all the elements of Clinton's initiative would make a difference. As the White House pointed out on Wednesday, family health insurance premiums on average cost $5,700. For families trying to get by, this can present a real burden.

Clinton was stung politically when, early in his presidency, Congress rejected his ambitious plan to offer universal health care coverage for all Americans. In response, the president has proposed more modest measures to make health insurance affordable and, in turn, reduce the number of uninsured Americans, which today is estimated to be 44 million. The administration has been hit from all sides as Clinton has advocated these policies. The Republican congressional leadership, at the behest of the powerful insurance lobby, has effectively bottled up and derailed his proposals. And Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Bradley has derided Clinton's plans -- and Vice President Al Gore's involvement -- as not being bold enough.

As usual, though, while those on the right and left harp at Clinton's ideas, the vast number of Americans who occupy the center of the political spectrum -- and are tired of the usual bickering that seems to ignore their concerns for responsible governing -- want to see government take measured, yet substantive steps to improve health care. A look at the president's proposals shows that they are exactly the kind of initiatives that will help reduce the ranks of the uninsured, make health care more affordable -- all the while minimizing as much as possible government's intervention in the actual delivery of medical care.

Meanwhile, the early word is that the government's surplus will be even larger than predicted last year. Those revised numbers haven't been released yet, but much the same battle that emerged last year -- Democrats wanting to use the funds for targeted tax cuts and spending on new government programs vs. Republicans seeking sweeping tax cuts instead -- could happen again. Money should be set aside to shore up Social Security and Medicare, but at the same time Congress should adopt the president's health care package, which is needed if this nation is serious about ensuring that people get the medical care that they deserve.