Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a CNN-Time magazine poll released Saturday, 43 percent of those surveyed said there is a crisis, while 51 percent said health care is a problem, but not a crisis.
While they disagreed on how serious the health-care problem is, 67 percent said they thought high health-care costs are a bigger problem than the fact that not everyone has coverage. Twenty-seven percent thought lack of coverage was the bigger problem.
The poll of 500 Americans was conducted by telephone Thursday and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
As lawmakers wrangled over President Clinton's plan and its rivals on Capitol Hill, 63 percent of those polled agreed with Clinton's central premise - that the federal government should provide health care for all Americans, while 30 percent disagreed.
Those polled were evenly divided in their support for Clinton's plan - with 43 percent favoring it, 42 percent opposing it, and 15 percent still unsure.
The poll indicates, however, that Americans still don't fully understand the details of the complex health-care debate.
Asked how well they understood the current health-care proposals, 57 percent admitted they did only somewhat, while 21 percent said they did not understand them very well. Another 21 percent said they understood the various plans very well.
On the question of whether employers, both big and small, should be required to pay for health insurance for their workers - a central tenet of the Clinton plan - 60 percent of those polled said yes, while 37 percent said no.
But asked whether employers should have to pay insurance for part-time workers, 63 percent said they didn't think so, while 31 percent said yes.
Also Saturday, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., the chief sponsor of a rival plan to Clinton's, said he's worried about the "level of coercion" in Clinton's plan, which would require employers to pay much of their employees' health insurance.
"It forces them to do it, whether they can afford it or not. And we're worried about that big role for government," said Cooper, whose rival health plan, which has been dubbed "Clinton Lite," has been garnering increasing attention.
Cooper's plan does not require employers to pay workers' insurance.
But Cooper was also talking compromise Saturday when he appeared on CNN's "Newsmaker Saturday," with Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., a key Clinton supporter, and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who supports a Republican plan.
"We need Democrats like Harris Wofford and we need Republicans like Pete Domenici on the same bill. And we are closer to that day than we have been probably since Harry Truman was president," Cooper said.
Wofford indicated a willingness to work with Cooper - particularly on details of the government alliances Clinton would require all companies with less than 5,000 employees to join.
Cooper's plan would create health purchasing cooperatives for individuals and businesses with less than 100 employees.
Wofford said he was willing to accept Cooper's terminology and call the alliances cooperatives.
He said if he could get Cooper to agree that employers should be required to contribute to their workers' insurance, they'd be getting somewhere.
"The `Clinton Lite' of Jim Cooper is light on business and employers and very heavy on individuals. If Jim will just take the move toward asking all employers to contribute, we'll be just about there," Wofford said.
by CNB