Gore Singles Out a Family With a Health-Care Crisis

Vice President Al Gore elevated a family’s potentially life-and-death dispute with a giant insurance company to an extraordinary level Sunday, as he sternly warned the firm publicly against cutting the family’s medical benefits.

As Gore angrily described the family’s plight, a crowd of about 400 supporters at his campaign rally alternately roared with support for the family and vented its anger at Aetna Inc. by booing and jeering lustily.

Thrust into the limelight were Dylan and Christine Malone of nearby Everett.

Their infant, Ian, born in early September, has a life-threatening respiratory condition that requires around-the-clock nursing care to prevent him from asphyxiating on his own bodily fluids.

But according to Gore and the couple, who met earlier in the day, Aetna has stated its intention to scale back coverage for the child’s nursing care and to terminate it altogether after March 18.

“Don’t do this! Don’t do this!” Gore thundered from the stage erected in a high school gym, microphone in hand. “Don’t cut this child’s coverage!”

Gore also said that the Malones’ caseworker at Aetna had suggested that the couple abandon custody of Ian--which would make the infant eligible for Medicaid, the federal government program for indigent people.

A spokeswoman for Aetna disputed Gore and the Malones’ characterization of the case. “Aetna is continuing to communicate with the family. At this point, this is not a closed case. We are continuing to work with them to determine the appropriate level of care for the child.”

Gore was roundly cheered here Sunday for championing the family’s case. But he also injected such a strong note of partisanship that it could draw criticism, especially from Republicans.

The Malones’ plight, Gore told the crowd, underscores the urgent need for Congress to enact the Democratic version of a patient’s bill of rights. The vice president said the competing Republican approach does not go far enough to ensure that patients have adequate protections and legal recourse when their insurers deny them benefits. Gore suggested that the GOP plan is “phony.”

In an interview, the Malones said they viewed publicity as perhaps their final hope in getting Aetna to reverse itself.

“I think raising public awareness is the only way to get something done,” said Christine Malone.

Dylan Malone, a graphic artist at a newspaper in Everett, said he brought his case to Gore’s attention last week by faxing to the vice president’s campaign office here a Seattle newspaper account of his family’s plight. A few days later, the Malones were invited to meet with Gore on Sunday.

Coincidentally, Bill Bradley’s campaign workers had read about the Malones and contacted them shortly after the story appeared. But the Malones, who support Gore, contacted the vice president’s camp instead.

Gore told the rally that he was taking up the Malones’ cause because “they believe it may be their last chance to save Ian’s life.”

He said Ian may not require such intensive care throughout his life, but that it is critical during his first year.

Physicians have told the Malones that “if he survives through the first year of life, the prognosis is much better--that he will not then require the same intensity of care but will be able to get by fine with less care,” Gore said. “But right now his life is at risk.”

Bradley, meanwhile, was taking his plea for racial understanding to an African American church here Sunday, emphasizing his Democratic credentials as he tried to shore up support two days before the Washington state primary.

As muted light shone through the stained glass windows of First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bradley stood before the congregation and said the country must acknowledge the continuing discrimination against African Americans.

America needs a leader “who is prepared to take the risk to challenge white America to stop denying the indignities that black Americans have to experience every day,” Bradley said as about 300 church members packed in the wooden pews applauded and shouted their assent.

Saying he was “stunned” by the recent acquittal of four New York police officers in the death of West African immigrant Amadou Diallo, Bradley said America must grapple with issues such as racial profiling.

Diallo’s shooting--he was slain while holding a wallet that officers thought was a gun--”reveals a deeper tragedy in our country that we have to solve,” Bradley said. “And it is that a wallet in the hands of a white man looks like a wallet. A wallet in the hands of a black man looks like a gun.”

Later in the day, Bradley gave a group of young basketball players at the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club some tips and organized a competition. After initially falling behind, his team won 11 to 9.

“That was a good omen,” he said afterward with a chuckle. “I came from behind to win.”

Bradley has been campaigning in the drizzling rain here since Tuesday, telling college students, strikers, port workers and retirees that he is a true reform candidate. Along the way, he has been trying to paint Vice President Gore as a conservative who voted against abortion rights and gun control while in Congress.

While the last polls show that the former New Jersey senator has 20 to 25 percentage points to make up, his aides say they are feeling confident.

“We’ve come in and shaken things up,” said spokesman Eric Hauser. “People are paying attention.”