Proposal Divides Gallegly, Beilenson

Ventura County’s two congressmen agree that the nation’s troubled health care system needs reform but they split along partisan lines over whether President Clinton’s sweeping proposal is on the right track.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) gave the plan a resounding thumbs down Wednesday. “If 10% of the program is broken, I don’t think we need to provide a 100% overhaul,” he said.

Gallegly said Clinton’s blueprint would create a new federal bureaucracy and cost Americans a million or more jobs by imposing new payroll taxes on business. He favors a more gradualist plan devised by the House Republicans that would require employers to make insurance available to workers to buy at their own expense.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), whose 24th District includes most of Thousand Oaks, was far more enthusiastic about Clinton’s blueprint.

“I’m in general support,” Beilenson said. “The status quo is unacceptable. And the Administration has clearly come up with a way that is one alternative to resolve the problems that face us. And I’m really confident that the Congress and the President together will develop a workable plan.”

Clinton’s plan would provide all Americans--including the 37 million who now lack health insurance--with a generous insurance policy through regional purchasing cooperatives. Employers would be required to provide insurance and pay 80% of the cost; low-income families would receive subsidies to buy insurance.

“The President deserves an enormous amount of credit for, in a sense, forcing all of us to confront the serious problem of a health care system or non-system that’s far too costly and unfairly leaves too many people out of it,” Beilenson said. “And, more important, puts too many people at risk of losing the coverage that they have.”

The House Republican plan, one of several GOP alternatives, would sharply limit insurance companies’ ability to refuse to provide insurance to an employer or cover an individual; require insurance firms to offer all small employers at least three plans; allow employers to band into large purchasing cooperatives to negotiate lower insurance costs; and allow individuals to buy coverage through tax-deductible contributions to a medical savings account.

“It does not establish a whole new bureaucracy of tens of thousands of federal employees,” Gallegly said. “And it gives those seeking coverage more latitude as to the doctors and the health care coverage they need. It provides access to people who do not have access now.”

The Ventura County representatives both applauded attempts by the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to reach out to congressional Republicans--in contrast to the partisan approach to enacting the budget.

“The promising part of the program is that the President appears to be trying to make an effort to work in a bipartisan way and to put the partisanship behind us on this issue,” Gallegly said. “The only way it’s going to work is if there is a true bipartisan effort to make it work.”

“This is a more civil and less partisan and more hopeful place than it was just a few weeks ago,” Beilenson said, attributing much of the reason to the Clintons’ conciliatory approach to crafting and adopting health care legislation.

“They want to talk about this. They will, if necessary, compromise. This is not a finished product.”