Governors Hail Clinton on Health Care : Politics: But leaders are concerned that states will be footing the bills while having no voice in management of the plan.

The nation’s governors saluted President Clinton on Saturday for putting health care reform and “reinventing government” atop his agenda, but warned that Washington’s solutions should not pass the tab to the states.

The warnings, and worries, of the governors were a vivid reminder of the political obstacles Clinton faces as he tries to sell the coming health care initiative and its likely new taxes, an effort that includes a Clinton speech Monday to the National Governors’ Assn. summer meeting here.

“When it comes to health care, we’re scared to death of some of their (the Administration’s) things,” said South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., head of the association’s health care task force. “We’re concerned that the global budgeting they talk about means cost shifting everything to the states.”

As they gathered, the governors tempered their pleas for national health care reform with appeals that Clinton respect ongoing state initiatives and not seek a “one size fits all” solution for states with vastly different populations and problems.

“This ought to be a state-administered system,” said Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat who is wrapping up his year as association chairman.

Republican governors were particularly adamant in saying that Clinton would fritter away an opportunity for bipartisanship if he proposed a system replete with Washington management and mandates. Several, including California Gov. Pete Wilson, said they would not support any plan that required small businesses to provide insurance or included major new tax increases.

“I’m hopeful we won’t get right back into the tax issue in this health care proposal,” said Republican Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts.

“We will stand with the President to fight for flexibility at the state level,” said Republican Gov. John Engler of Michigan. But Clinton will run into opposition from governors, Engler said, if he proposes a “system that is Washington-designed, Washington-driven.”

Several governors said they worried more about Congress than Clinton.

Because of political scars lawmakers received from the just-ended budget battle, the governors worried that Congress would adopt sweeping health reforms to appease voters heading into 1994 elections but steer clear of higher taxes by passing the costs on to the states. “The mother of all unfunded state mandates,” was how Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt put it.

Campbell said many governors already are implementing health care reforms in their states and are worried about a major national initiative full of mandates that conflict with state policies.

To that end, the governors were considering a policy resolution designed to insulate state reforms from federal changes.