The House Education and Labor Committee approved a health bill promising insurance for everyone Thursday, becoming the second congressional panel to ratify President Clinton's key health-care goal.
Clinton, noting that the Senate Labor Committee had passed a similar bill, said, "They have broken the chokehold of special interests, and by choosing to cover everyone, have stood up instead for millions of hard-working middle-class Americans."
Keeping options open, the House panel also narrowly approved a Canadian-style bill that would replace private insurance premiums with payroll taxes to pay medical bills.
The panel's version of the Clinton bill requires employers to pay for insurance, has subsidies for small firms and expands coverage for women's health, mental illness and adult dental care. Republicans will ensure the rich package gets more scrutiny.
The House panel also defeated attempts to strip most abortion coverage from the benefits. That issue, too, will remain contentious.
Meanwhile, four Democrats and three Republicans spent the day behind closed doors trying to fashion a bill with enough coverage to be called universal without ordering employers or individuals to pay for it.
Some points were in flux, but participants confirmed details: If 95% of Americans didn't have health insurance by 2002, a commission would recommend a plan for achieving universal coverage. Congress would have to approve it within six months.
If Congress failed to act, the bill would require individuals to buy their own health insurance.
Financing remains in dispute.
One proposal is to tax top-dollar insurance policies at 25% to 35% of the difference between their cost and average premiums. Another idea, to tax employers who don't insure their workers, was taken off the agenda.
Still, Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., said he expects the group to present a finished plan to Finance Committee leaders today.
But Senate Republican leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., planning to introduce his own bill, said the moderates' plan apparently relies too heavily on taxes to win many Republican votes.
Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., called the Chafee group's bid the Senate's last shot at bipartisan reform.
Republicans' "objective is health-care reform, and the president's is universal coverage," he said. If Chafee's bid fails, he predicted, Senate Democrats will try to pass a bill with 51 votes, only one Republican. That would let Democrats campaign as health reformers but let Republicans blame them for the taxes involved.
