Clinton Digs in Heels on Health Bill : Legislation: President decries ‘halfhearted measures’ on reform, calls for same ‘great deal’ federal workers get. House panel holds contentious Saturday session as Democrats repel GOP proposals.

Spurning talk of compromise, President Clinton said Saturday he hoped to provide all working Americans with the same “great deal” on health insurance that he shares with members of Congress and other federal employees.

In his weekly radio address, the President stood firmly behind his renewed call for universal coverage and denounced what he called “halfhearted measures” that would fall short of ensuring medical insurance protection for all families.

Clinton clearly was referring to a new proposal backed by moderate Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. The plan unveiled Friday fails to meet the President’s bottom-line demand on coverage. Its fate in the committee is uncertain.

The much-discussed compromise would require neither employers nor individuals to buy health insurance but would rely on market reforms, tax breaks and vouchers for the poor to achieve coverage for 95% of Americans by the year 2002. If that level were not obtained, a national commission would make recommendations to Congress on how to do better.

“Half measures, quick fixes, things that sound better than they actually will work will only make matters worse,” the President said. “Make no mistake, measures that are halfhearted would, at best, guarantee that things stay only about as good as they are now--the poor would get health care, the wealthy would get health care and the middle class would get it sometimes.

“We have to help middle-class Americans--whose economic success is the key to America’s prosperity--know that they will always have health security, even if they have to change jobs or if they lose their jobs,” he said.

The President’s remarks came as the House Ways and Means Committee held an unusual Saturday session, punctuated by fierce partisan outbursts, in an attempt to finish work on its modified version of Clinton’s plan before Congress leaves on its July 4 break.

Acting largely along party lines, the panel defeated a series of Republican attempts to modify the bill. It voted against a GOP proposal to kill a planned Medicare program for the poor and employees of small firms. It also rejected a Republican call to scrap proposed restraints on the growth of Medicare spending, pushed by the Democrats as a way to control costs.

“There’s an organized effort by the Republicans to scare the people to death about this program,” said Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-Fla.), acting chairman of the panel, as he led the fight to fend off GOP amendments.

But Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), author of the proposal to forgo restraints on Medicare outlays, said it was unlikely the anticipated savings would be achieved.

“This is like legislating with a magic wand,” Shaw protested.

But Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) contended that Medicare spending would explode from the current $163 billion a year to $460 billion in 2004 without the provisions to hold down outlays to $391 billion at that time.

Shaw also proposed to make drug care under Medicare an optional plan rather than mandatory, as proposed in the bill before the committee. He lost on a voice vote.

But Rep. Pete Stark (D-Hayward) countered: “To make this program voluntary is to destroy it. . . . Do not penalize the seniors by raising the cost of drugs.”

After six hours of uninterrupted work, Gibbons said “substantial progress” had been achieved. But he said the controversial topic of cost containment would be on the agenda when the panel resumed its sessions Tuesday.

Two other committees--the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee--have approved health care bills along the lines that Clinton seeks. Along with the Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee are expected to produce versions of health care legislation before a bill is brought to the floor of either chamber.

Noting that 15% of the U.S. population lacks health insurance, the President said that even those who are now covered cannot be sure they will be protected against medical costs in the future.

“Actually, not all Americans face this kind of risk,” Clinton added in a message apparently aimed at the lawmakers who are considering health care reform.

“Members of Congress, along with the President and all federal government employees--we have a great deal right now,” he said. “We work for you, the taxpayers of America. And you reward us with health coverage that can’t be taken away, even if we get sick. Not only that, we have the requirement that employers contribute most of the cost of our health plan--that’s you, you’re our employers--and we contribute some.

“Now I believe every working American deserves these same benefits and that same guarantee,” Clinton said, appealing to his listeners to tell members of Congress that they share his belief.

The heart of Clinton’s plan--requiring employers to pay 80% of health care costs--was assailed by Rep. H. James Saxton (R-N.J.) as a job-killing, wage-cutting provision that is unacceptable to the American people.

“Mr. President, it’s not that the American people are unwilling or unable to understand your plan,” Saxton said in a Republican response to Clinton’s radio talk. “It is that the American people have rejected your big-government, high-tax approach.”

The GOP spokesman argued that Congress should pass more limited legislation to bar denial of health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, to reform medical malpractice laws and allow smaller firms to pool risks that would lower their insurance costs.

“Such common-sense reforms are not halfhearted, nor are they hardheaded,” Saxton said. “Unfortunately, Congress can’t pass a meaningful health care reform bill until President Clinton abandons his ‘my way or the highway’ position on a government-run bill which would raise our taxes, limit our choices and kill our jobs.”