Moving on Health Care

Though most Americans and their elected officials now agree that some form of national health insurance is essential, they have been unable to agree on a program. The most ambitious politicians have urged a comprehensive, European-style approach, others a more modest plan to cover the costs of financially catastrophic illness. The Nixon Administration has steered a middle course; its plan could ultimately offer all Americans some form of coverage through private insurance companies (TIME, Feb. 18). Last week two of the President's most powerful opponents followed the Administration's lead. Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Wilbur Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a measure closely resembling the Administration program. By so doing, they brightened the prospects that Congress would finally act favorably on national health insurance.

On Kennedy's part, the compromise was a retreat. For the past 3 1/2years he has been pushing a sweeping, Government-financed system that would provide Americans with lifetime care, from nursery to nursing home, at an estimated cost of some $60 billion a year. But Kennedy has now recognized political realities: doctors, leery of any program that would change the health care delivery system, opposed this plan vigorously, while the public has shown no willingness to accept the tax burdens that such comprehensive coverage would entail.

Negotiable Differences. Like the Nixon plan, the Kennedy-Mills program would cover the costs of hospitalization, major medical expenses and catastrophic illness. It would have employers pay a large part of the premiums and retain a role for private insurance companies. It would also require the Government to Supply coverage for the unemployed (who would contribute 1% of their welfare or unemployment benefits) and self-employed (who would pay 2 1/2% of their incomes of up to $20,000). Under the plan, however, the Government, rather than the insurance companies, would collect premiums, enabling it to control private profits. While the President's plan sets a $1,500 limit on the amount that any family would have to pay for medical care in any given year, the Kennedy-Mills bill lowers the limit to $1,000. Says Mills: "We tried to develop a program to sell to the House and Senate and get a bill moving and passed."

They may well have succeeded. The differences between their bill and the Administration's seem to be negotiable, and both parties have indicated their eagerness to enact a health care bill before the November election.

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