Senators Begin Work on New Prescription for Health Care

Despite dwindling hopes for passage of any health care legislation this year, a bipartisan group of “mainstream” senators met Monday with Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) to discuss a trimmed-down bill for Congress to consider in the final weeks of this session.

Mitchell and Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) said afterward that they had made progress but still had several difficult issues to resolve before introducing a last-resort measure in the Senate. They scheduled another meeting for today.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), however, said it would take a miracle to get any health care legislation through the Senate and House before Congress quits for the year in mid-October.

Even Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), a leader of the moderate group of senators, quipped that it may be time to call in former President Jimmy Carter at the eleventh hour to try to salvage a health care bill, just as Carter succeeded in last-minute negotiations in Haiti.

Mitchell’s attempts to produce a compromise bill have been attacked from both the Republican right and the Democratic left. Some senators, such as Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), want to drop the subject of health care while others, such as Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), have argued against a compromise of basic principles just to get a bill passed this year.

“I have some hope, but not the same hope as I had last week,” said Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), another moderate seeking to reach agreement with Mitchell on health care.

But Mitchell and Chafee told reporters that they have resolved 90% of the issues that once divided them and are working on the others, including such difficult points as long-term care, prescription drug coverage and the size of companies that would be allowed to insure themselves.

“We recognize the very tight time constraints,” Mitchell added. “We’re moving as fast as possible.”

Mitchell said the agreement reached in Haiti that staved off an American invasion helped the cause of health care because the agreement will reduce the amount of time Congress planned to use to debate President Clinton’s Haiti policy.