Cox Says Clinton Health Plan Will Hurt Seniors

Rep. Christopher Cox denounced the Clinton Administration’s health plan Monday, saying it would create a monopoly that would hurt senior citizens the most.

Speaking before a crowd of about 200 people at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, Cox (R-Newport Beach) criticized numerous points of the sweeping package, then took the opportunity to promote a series of his own party’s proposals for reforming the health care system.

Cox said the Clinton plan could potentially increase the number of patients to the point where it would overload existing medical services.

“Price controls will lead to rationing, and this will hit senior citizens the hardest,” Cox said, addressing the audience of mostly senior citizens. “They are the group that relies on health care the most.”

Cox went on to say that the Clinton plan would dramatically alter or eliminate the current health care system, which he called “the best high-quality medical care system in the world.”

Cox, who plans to run for reelection this year, said the Clinton plan would set up regional health care alliances that would limit the number of plans from which a person could choose. Under this setup, Cox said, a person who is dissatisfied with a choice of four or five regional plans would have to move to another area in order to change his coverage.

In addition, Cox said the quality of medical services and research in the United States would drop off dramatically.

The congressional representative cited several proposed reforms in the Republican health care package that he said would directly address the major problem better than the Clinton plan.

“The fundamental problem is high cost and inaccessibility,” Cox said. “There are so many people without protection--about 38 million in 1990.”

“Over half of those people were individuals who were between jobs who had lost their coverage,” he said.

Cox said that less government intervention rather than more would increase competition and drive down the cost of medical services.

However, Cox did agree with some points in the Clinton plan, saying that reforms in malpractice and paperwork are needed.