The health-care reform plan approved late Wednesday by a key House panel bears little resemblance to President Clinton's proposal, but it sticks by most of his goals.
Gone are the mandatory purchasing cooperatives Clinton wants to increase consumer clout and spread insurance risks.
Gone, too, are his subsidies for small business, and some of the more generous benefits in his standard policy, including some long-term care coverage.
And where Clinton has stressed guaranteeing private insurance for all, the plan authored by Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, D-Calif., creates a new Medicare "Part C" to cover the poor, unemployed and some small business employees.
But the Stark plan, approved 6-5 by the House Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee after much back-room negotiating, includes Clinton's mandate that employers pay 80% of workers' insurance, caps on health spending, higher tobacco taxes and cuts in Medicare growth.
The goals are the same: controlling soaring health-care costs while extending coverage to 38 million uninsured Americans and ensuring others won't lose their insurance.
Democrats on Stark's panel hailed their version as an improvement over the Clinton plan, widely criticized for new federal and state bureaucracies. "We've improved it over the Clinton package," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., who provided the crucial sixth vote.
But Republicans called it worse than the Clinton plan they oppose, noting it expands the federal government's role in health care by greatly expanding Medicare.
"It is far more direct government involvement and direct government control," said Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn.
