Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 17, 1993 TAG: 9311200249
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
``We are looking at massive government interference in the marketplace,'' said Philip M. Reilly, chairman of a Virginia Chamber of Commerce task force on health care.
Reilly said businesses worry they will be required to pay an increasing share of health costs as the program unfolds. If the plan includes price controls, patients may have to deal with rationing or a black market for health care, he said. He also complained that the plan does little to curb malpractice costs.
Reilly and other representatives of business, universities and the insurance industry critiqued the Clinton plan during a daylong health forum sponsored by Virginia Tech.
James Bohland, chairman of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning at Tech, cited concerns about the costs of Clinton's proposed regional health alliances to regulate medical care.
``The burdens of those costs will fall on the states, not the federal government,'' Bohland said.
Ronald H. Bargatze, executive vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia, said the 1,300-page Clinton plan says nothing about personal responsibility for staying healthy.
``We have lifestyle issues that I don't believe are heredity-related,'' he said.
J. Kennerly Davis Jr., vice president of Dominion Resources, said his company has held down health costs by treating insurance as an employee compensation rather than an entitlement. Too many other plans pay for routine health bills, he said.
``If we ran our auto insurance industry like we run our health insurance industry, our employers would pay for spark plug changes and motor oil,'' he said. ``Costs would skyrocket. There would be a car-care crisis.''
by CNB