Clinton May OK Phased-In Health Reform

Opening the door to a possible compromise on health care legislation, senior White House officials said Sunday that President Clinton would not insist on having health insurance coverage for every American immediately if Congress agreed to phase it in over the next several years.

The statements by White House counselor David Gergen and Harold M. Ickes, the deputy chief of staff, seemed designed to break a logjam in Congress, which is running weeks behind schedule in crafting health care reform. Their remarks also came a day after Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) attacked any universal coverage plan this year that required businesses to pay for it.

Both Gergen and Ickes said a “triggering mechanism” compromise being pushed by Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) might be a way out of the congressional morass, but they declined to endorse a specific alternate approach.

Under Breaux’s plan, by the years 1999, 2000 or 2001, if a certain percentage of uninsured people had not been covered through marketplace reforms, there would be a gradual phase-in of the so-called employer mandates requiring businesses to pay 80% of insurance coverage for their workers. His plan would give incentives to businesses to provide coverage for their workers.

Clinton’s insistence on employer mandates to pay for health care reform has drawn widespread opposition from business groups, particularly from small businesses, and from many Republicans as well as some Democrats.

Breaux, a key player in health care reform as a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” that his triggering plan could be phased in over a three- to five-year period, which “would not be an unnecessary burden on employers and businesses and yet provide insurance for all Americans.”

“By phasing in these requirements, I think we’ll have a chance to reform the marketplace,” he said. “It doesn’t do us any good to mandate something until we’ve reformed it.”

But Dole called such triggers “the biggest gimmick in town.” He said they would only delay the eventual onset of employer mandates, and that such mandates would hurt small businesses.

“If you’re going to have a mandate, just say you’re going to have a mandate,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “Don’t try to, you know, gloss it up, cover it up, paint it up or something else.”

Dole said Saturday in Boston that he would oppose any bill mandating that employers pay for workers’ health insurance. On Sunday he said some had misconstrued his comments as threatening a filibuster.

“I mean I’m going to fight the bill and try to change it, try to amend it, try to clarify it, try to knock out employer mandates,” he said. “It may be so bad you’d have to end up in a filibuster, but certainly we’re not at that point yet. We’re a long way from deciding any strategy.”

Speaking on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” Gergen said Clinton, who threatened in January to veto any bill that did not provide health insurance for all Americans, would accept a congressional guarantee “that there will be universal coverage down the road.”

“The President’s said all along he thinks his bill is the best way to get there,” Gergen said.

“But if there are other ways to get there, as long as they get to universal (coverage), there are many roads to Rome in this situation,” Gergen said.

Ickes, who has helped direct the White House effort for health care reform, said on NBC: “As long as universal coverage within a reasonable time is provided, I think the President will sign that bill.”

Breaux called upon the White House to get more actively involved as Congress eyes an early adjournment to take part in political campaigning this fall.

“You need your major players out there trying to get it done,” he said. “I mean, people like (Treasury Secretary) Lloyd Bentsen and (White House Chief of Staff) Mack McLarty. The President is engaged and the First Lady’s engaged, but they need a team effort here. And we’re in the fourth quarter and they need to be involved now.”

Gergen, appealing for bipartisan support for health care reform, said: “I trust that in the end, Bob Dole and the Republicans . . . will want to be constructive in trying to get this done.”

On the House side, Gergen had warm praise for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), who stepped aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee on May 31 after he was indicted on 17 federal charges of political corruption and misuse of his office funds.

Noting that the panel must play a key role in health care reform, Gergen said of Rostenkowski: “He’s been a very strong and staunch ally of health care, and he’ll continue to be that.”

Rostenkowski, asked on the CBS program if his indictment would hurt Clinton’s chances of passing his health reform bill, said: “That’s a decision that will have to be made by my constituency. . . . I will fight as hard as I can to get the bill out of the committee and onto the floor of the House.”

Asked about charges in the indictment that he had 14 “ghost employees” on his payroll, some of whom performed personal chores like mowing his lawn and photographing his daughters’ weddings, Rostenkowski said:

“In Chicago, we have very unusual associations with people that work for us, they are our friends as well.” The employees worked “40 hours a week for the government.”