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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993                   TAG: 9310020256
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

RESTORING WHAT WAS PRE-EXISTING

White House senior staffers gathered recently in the Oval Office to discuss which medical procedures would be covered under the administration's health-care reform proposal. The conversation went this way, according to several sources:

"Mr. President, will the operation be covered?" Vice President Al Gore asked.

"What?" President Clinton replied.

"You know, the operation."

"What are you talking about, Al?" Clinton persisted.

"You know, the, ah, penile reattachment," Gore deadpanned as the room erupted in laughter.

"I'll check," Clinton said, picking up the telephone.

"Honey?" Clinton said into the phone, explaining that Gore wanted to know if the health-care plan would cover the medical costs of the suburban Virginia man whose wife severed his penis.

Clinton held the phone up so the others in the room could hear the laughter at the other end from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After a moment's deliberation with the first lady, the preliminary determination was that one could argue that having a penis was a pre-existing condition and therefore covered by the plan as corrective - rather than cosmetic - surgery.

by CNB