Clinton, Aides Hit the Road to Push Health Care Plan

His health care reform agenda on the table at last, an energized President Clinton and top Administration officials dispersed across the nation Thursday to drum up support for a proposal that he said now has enough political momentum to be enacted.

“Our work is just beginning,” Clinton said at a pep rally attended by 1,100 backers and longtime health care reformers on the South Lawn of the White House.

“The real celebration will be when you come back in even larger numbers to this lawn, when I sign a bill,” Clinton added.

Shortly after the mid-afternoon gathering, the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Tampa, Fla., to promote the health care reform plan, which the President unveiled Wednesday night in a speech to a joint session of Congress.

In Tampa, Clinton was scheduled to field questions during a meeting with citizens with health care concerns, part of ABC-TV’s “Nightline” program.

But amid the hoopla at the White House on Thursday, there were signs that some congressional Republicans were becoming bolder in attacking the President’s plan.

Sen. Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas went so far as to suggest that the program might have to be dramatically pared back because of cost considerations.

Vice President Al Gore, however, strongly defended the integrity of the plan against criticism that the Administration has underestimated its expense and overstated its anticipated savings.

Aside from $105 billion in new revenue--largely through a tobacco tax--Clinton’s reforms would be paid for largely through $700 billion in projected savings over seven years.

“The numbers in our plan have been submitted to rigorous examination and cross-checking by all of the experts in the various government agencies,” Gore said in an interview. “They also have been submitted to analysis by private actuaries and accounting experts, companies around the nation. And they stand up very well.”

Gore also said the Administration intends to continue consulting with members of Congress--on both sides of the aisle--between now and October, when Clinton officially submits his health care reform legislation.

“We are emphasizing bipartisanship,” Gore said.

Such consultation was strongly encouraged by Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), author of what is considered the leading alternative to Clinton’s plan.

Chafee called on the President to meet with Senate Republicans in an effort to work out their differences before the bills are introduced.

He noted that the two proposals have “very significant similarities,” and added: “It’s certainly possible that serious discussions could bring us closer to agreement on those issues that we have in common.”

Chafee also suggested that the debate be put on an “informal timetable” in which the plan would face its first round of congressional hearings by Thanksgiving, be reported out of committees by spring and put to a final vote by August.

Gore said the Administration expects enactment of comprehensive health care reform before the current Congress adjourns, about a year from now.

The Clinton plan, meanwhile, also came under some fire from the left, as about 20 proponents of a Canadian-style, government-financed system known as “single-payer” said the Clinton proposal would not achieve its goals.

Almost 90 members of the House have endorsed a single-payer measure sponsored by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). Although congressional strategists say they believe that the single-payer adherents ultimately can be persuaded to vote for the Clinton plan, McDermott cautioned: “I think it’s always a mistake to take for granted the vote of any member of Congress.”

Conservative Democrats are seeking to put together their own alternative. Two of their leaders, Sen. John B. Breaux of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, met Thursday with Hillary Clinton.

With the President’s address, the Administration launched a concentrated series of promotional events aimed at winning broad public backing for the plan before it comes under intense scrutiny--and inevitable second-guessing and criticism--from various congressional committees and subcommittees.

Hillary Clinton appeared in an interview on CNN, where she repeated the Administration’s position that most of the “details” of the Administration’s proposal are open to compromise but that the “principles are not negotiable.”

In particular, she said, “universal coverage--that can’t be negotiable” although the schedule for reaching full coverage might be subject to change.

She also defended the President’s decision to levy a “sin tax” only on tobacco products, and not alcoholic beverages, as some Administration advisers had advocated. “Tobacco is the only product that, if used as it is supposed to be used, leads to health problems,” she said. “You can’t say that about alcohol (although) you can say it about excessive drinking.”

On Sept. 28, the First Lady will testify as the leadoff witness at a joint hearing of the Senate Finance and Labor committees. As many as 60 House and Senate committees and perhaps two dozen subcommittees may claim jurisdiction over some part of the plan, according to Chafee.

Thursday’s White House rally brought together Clinton loyalists from traditional Democratic groups--including labor, consumer and veterans’ organizations--but it also included top officials from some business groups who have yet to endorse the Administration’s views.

The group included Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO; Harold (Red) Poling, president of Ford Motor Co.; Barney Tresnowski, president of Blue Cross-Blue Shield; and Joseph Painter, president of the American Medical Assn.

Also in attendance was Ron Ziegler, president of the American Assn. of Chain Drug Stores and press secretary to former President Richard Nixon.

Hillary Clinton was greeted at the rally by a standing ovation for her role in leading the White House task force on health care reform.

She said health care reform “is not a Democratic or Republican problem. It doesn’t have liberal or conservative solutions. It is an American problem that we are going to solve before the Congress goes home next year.”

Earlier Thursday, Administration officials gave a series of television interviews to get out the Administration message.

Thomas (Mack) McLarty, in an interview on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, disclosed that the President’s plan will tax cigarettes at between 75 cents and $1 a pack, and will also levy a tax on other forms of tobacco.

The White House also invited nearly 60 radio talk-show hosts from around the country to set up shop on the North Lawn, where they broadcast more interviews with assorted Administration officials.

Health and Human Services Director Donna Shalala visited with senior citizens in the San Fernando Valley on Thursday to “try to overcome some of the nervousness out there” about Clinton’s plan to extract savings from the Medicare budget.

In a meeting with editors and reporters at The Times, Shalala said the proposed Medicare savings of $124 billion over seven years would still only “slow down the rate of growth (in the program) from three times the rate of inflation to just under two times the rate of inflation.”

“It will be tough to even go from three to two times the rate of inflation because the system and the culture of the program, the culture of medicine, is not designed to live within reasonable budgets the way the rest of us have to,” she said.

Times staff writer Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.