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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994                   TAG: 9402170124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EDISON, N.J.                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON TAKES ON AARP

President Clinton needled the powerful American Association of Retired Persons on Wednesday for refusing to endorse his health-care plan, as he and his wife opened an offensive to sell the plan to the elderly.

"This is a fight," the president told an audience of seniors as he lashed out at insurance-industry commercials against the plan and complained abut what he called an "endless gusher of politics and negativism."

The millions of elderly remain a large and keenly interested - but ambivalent - bloc that the White House was clearly out to court.

The president and Hillary Rodham Clinton, in their first joint appearance on the plan in months, confronted polls suggesting support among older Americans was wavering.

They both said that TV commercials sponsored by the insurance industry were spreading misinformation - even as the White House scrambled to defend a Democratic ad that Republicans claim was doctored. The White House said it is looking into the GOP demands that the ad be withdrawn.

Speaking to a crowd of 2,000 in a gymnasium on the campus of Middlesex County College, the Clintons promoted the plan's promise of $26 billion a year in new drug and long-term care benefits for the elderly.

It was the leadoff event in what the White House says will be a two-week effort to shore up support for the plan among the elderly.

A recent AARP survey found that 54 percent of those over 65 are worried that the plan would mean more government bureaucracy, 50 percent thought it may mean higher prices and 52 percent were concerned it would lead to lower-quality care than under the present Medicare system.

"In today's system, insurance companies regularly charge older people more than younger people," Clinton said. He also accused some companies of selling "bogus" long-term policies to the elderly. "We shouldn't pit the old against the young or the middle-aged," Clinton said.

He was mildly critical of the AARP, the powerful senor citizens' lobby which co-sponsored the event, for not coming out in support of his plan.

by CNB