
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 30, 1993                   TAG: 9308300035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

DOLE WANTS COOPERATION ON HEALTH PLAN

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole said Sunday his party is ready to work with President Clinton on a compromise health-care reform package, but that the legislation won't be approved this year.

Dole said the Republicans won't remain on the sidelines on the health-care issue as they did in unanimously rejecting Clinton's deficit-cutting budget plan earlier this year. The Kansas Republican said several GOP health-care plans are expected to be introduced to counter the Clinton plan.

But Dole, in an appearance on CNN's "Newsmaker Sunday," declined to criticize the Clinton approach to health-care reform for the time being and suggested there will be room for negotiation and compromise.

"I think we ought to keep our powder dry," said Dole. "If we're going to have broad bipartisan action on health care, we shouldn't start firing shots before we even know what's in the package."

Clinton, returning from an 11-day vacation on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, is expected to focus in the coming months on getting congressional ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement and support for an overhaul of the health-care system.

A task force on health-care reform, headed by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, is scheduled to produce its proposals within weeks.

by CNB