Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020187
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Boston Globe
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Enough is enough," Clinton said at a pediatricians' convention in a harsh critique of the insurance industry. She blamed the companies for bringing the country "to the brink of bankruptcy" while second-guessing doctors and cutting off patients who get sick.
"It is time that we stood up and said we are tired of insurance companies' running our health-care system," she said to applause.
Clinton's speech got enthusiastic applause from the physicians, but a spokesman for the health insurance industry charged that it was she who was tampering with the facts.
Chip Kahn, executive vice president of the group funding the commercials, countered: "For her to say `great lies' is a total mischaracterization of the facts. They've just decided to paint a black hat on us, because insurance companies aren't that popular."
The exchange was yet another indication that the fight over health care will get meaner as Congress takes up the mammoth bill, which seeks coverage for all Americans.
Hillary Clinton's broadside was delivered to a meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has endorsed the administration plan. She targeted two commercials sponsored by the Health Insurance Association of America, which is running a multimillion-dollar campaign against the plan.
The brief messages, featuring a couple sitting at the kitchen table fretting over health care, suggest that the government wants to take away people's choice of health-care plans, cut coverage and clamp a lid on the amount of protection patients can expect.
In the first ad, broadcast in September, a woman struggling with a stack of bills protests that "this was covered under our old plan."
An announcer suggests, "The government may force us to pick from a few health-care plans designed by government bureaucrats."
Man: "They choose."
Woman: "We lose."
A second ad now running begins with "Harry" praising the president for "doing something about health-care reform" until "Louise" shows him the Clinton plan and suggests that it would mean "the government caps how much the country can spend on all health care and says, `That's it.' "
"So, what if our health plan runs out of money?" Harry asks, suddenly concerned.
His wife shrugs and says, "There's gotta be a better way."
Hillary Clinton, in a long defense of the legislation she helped design for her husband, said: "What you don't get told in the ad is that it is paid for by insurance companies who think their way is the better way. . . . They like being able to exclude people from coverage, because the more they can exclude, the more money they can make."
She expressed indignation at the "gall" of the ads by "the very industry that has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy because of the way that they have financed health care. . . . Enough is enough. We want our health-care system back."
In a jab calculated to win approval from her medical audience, Clinton charged that the insurance companies, "as you know better than I, second-guess doctors' medical decisions" every day, narrowing and limiting their choices and undermining autonomy.
Yet, she said, "one of the great lies that is currently afoot in the country is that the president's plan will limit choice. To the contrary; the president's plan enhances choice."
A key feature of the administration plan would guarantee all a minimum package of health coverage, regardless of whether they change jobs or contract a serious or potentially costly illness. Those who are willing - or whose employers are willing - to pay more could buy more-comprehensive benefits. And those willing to pay the largest share of their own health-care costs could preserve the right to choose any physician or hospital willing to serve them.
Kahn, the insurance industry spokesman, said, "The ad which obviously got Mrs. Clinton very upset was put on because the industry was so concerned about the tone the administration had taken toward the industry."
He said the "choice" ad was pulled at the end of September in part because the industry realized that the Clinton plan had changed to permit more options in the kinds of coverage available. But he insisted that it had been accurate at the time it was aired.
Clinton's attack could be an indication that the ads are having some effect on the national debate.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published last week indicated that public support for the administration plan has eroded in recent weeks.
by CNB