A Chance to Be Heard

HEALTH CARE

NO FEWER THAN FIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES ARE health-care policy. The plan proposed by President Clinton calls for strict government regulations and market reforms to extend health insurance to all Americans. It would be paid for by higher cigarette taxes and mandated employer contributions. Because the bill has been criticized as being too sweeping and too costly, some congressional Democrats have been working to forge a compromise version of the President's proposal that would take into account elements of rival plans. An alternative that is palatable to many conservatives, proposed by House Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee, would rely on improved market competition through voluntary purchasing cooperatives. While employers would be required to make group health insurance available to their workers under Cooper's plan, they would not be required to pay for it. The Congressional Budget Office has concluded, however, that the Cooper approach may not control health-care costs as effectively as its supporters claim.

On the other end of the spectrum is a bill proposed by House Democrat Jim McDermott of Washington. Modeled on the single-payer Canadian system, it puts the government in charge of allocating health-care resources, financed by substantial taxes. McDermott's plan won 90 backers in the House last year, but polls show growing public skepticism of government-run medicine. A handful of other health-care bills that have been introduced may end up as amendments to the final legislation.

WELFARE REFORM

FEW AMERICANS DISAGREE WITH PRESIDENT CLINton's call to "end welfare as we know it." But just what that means is a question that has Congress divided into several camps. There are currently four major welfare-reform schemes -- three of them bills already before Congress, with the White House expected to introduce its own plan this month. All four would cut off aid after as little as two years, at which point recipients would be required to go to work. The White House plan will gradually phase in the job requirement. The Talent-Faircloth bill, reflecting the views of the conservative group Empower America, would cut off benefits to unwed mothers under the age of 21 and turn the savings over to the states, which would then set up orphanages and group homes.

In every case, "ending" welfare will end up costing money -- mostly to create government-subsidized jobs for those who can't find other work. Since the law requires that any new government spending be financed wither by cuts in existing programs or through new taxes, all four schemes reach into current spending on anti-poverty programs. A popular target is aid to legal immigrants, with provisions for the deepest cuts in the House Republican bill and the Mainstream Forum bill (backed by moderate and conservative Democrats). Talent-Faircloth also puts a ceiling on all welfare spending except Medicaid, while the House G.O.P. bill imposes a cutoff on earned income tax credits. Clinton's plan now lets the states decide whether to cap benefits to welfare mothers who bear additional children. Though some of his top advisers still favor it, the President has rejected a plan to raise new revenues by taxing benefits paid to farmers who earn more than $100,000 annually from non-farm income. Instead, Clinton proposes to transfer surplus money from the environmental cleanup Superfund.