Letter: Clinton’s HMO plan made sense

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 4:29 a.m.

I am responding to Stephen J. Yarling's Aug. 21 letter, "Bush, GOP work to contain health care costs":

The bill that President Bush is willing to sign, the Republican bill, has no enforcement teeth and will supersede current law in those states which have already passed patients' rights legislation, leaving patients in those states without the protections they now enjoy.

Yarling also criticized the Clinton health care reform and referred to it as a "Big Brother" program. He apparently didn't read that bill. The Clinton plan called for covering all Americans (we still have 40 million uninsured) and provided three choices: HMO, managed care and fee for service.

The Clinton health plan didn't fall apart because it wasn't a good or necessary one. It was brought down deliberately, for political reasons, by a group of men who boasted, after it fell apart, that they had committed the perfect crime: brought down health care reform and blamed it on the president. I suggest that Yarling read David Broder's book "The System" and learn how it was accomplished.

If Yarling would like to bring the type of protections to Nevadans that he enjoyed in California, he'd better hope that President Bush doesn't prevail in this fight.

BARBARA ROWAN