Congress has put President Clinton's health-care reform plan on a diet.
Ever since getting its hands on the president's proposal, Congress has sought to massage its mandates, bend its benefits and curtail its costs.
That process continues this week as the chairmen of two House committees make further concessions to moderate Democrats who hold the key to Clinton's success or failure:
-- Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell hopes to win over three lawmakers - Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va.; Jim Slattery, D-Kan.; and Richard Lehman, D-Calif. - who want fewer burdens on small business.
-- Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski will sound out his 24-member Democratic caucus on a variety of issues. Clinton's requirement that employers pay 80% of workers' insurance premiums is the thorniest.
Administration officials insist they're sticking by the three most controversial parts of their plan: requiring employers to pay, requiring that insurance be bought through purchasing cooperatives, and capping premium increases.
But on Capitol Hill, deals are being cut in the quest for votes.
"We are making great progress," says Boucher, a low-key lawmaker thrust into the limelight as a key vote on Dingell's panel. "Hopefully by (this) week, we'll have a consensus."
Since the Clinton plan was delivered to Congress, it has suffered several setbacks:
-- House leaders made clear their intent to make purchasing cooperatives voluntary, phase in benefits more slowly, and give competition a chance to work before price controls and mandates kick in.
-- The only panel that's acted, a Ways and Means subcommittee, replaced the Clinton plan with a Medicare expansion to cover the uninsured, offering fewer benefits, lower costs and less bureaucracy.
-- Senate Finance Committee Democrats and Republicans have agreed to work together on a bill sure to move Clinton's plan to the right.
-- The Congressional Budget Office has opened a five-year, $ 74 billion hole in the plan with its fiscal estimates - it says it would increase the deficit that much before starting to reduce it - forcing Congress to consider lower costs or higher taxes.
"There are lots of outstanding issues," says Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., who voted for the subcommittee revision but wants further changes.
All eyes now are on Dingell and Rostenkowski, titans with 76 years in Congress between them. Both want to deliver for Clinton but face demands from moderates like Slattery and Bill Brewster, D-Okla.
"They're going to have to make quite a few changes to get me," Brewster says.
"We all have similar concerns," says Slattery, who would prefer to reach universal health insurance coverage, Clinton's top goal, without any mandates on employers or individuals. "We're still trying to find common ground."
Dingell already has altered the Clinton plan, making the purchasing co-ops voluntary and easing the financial burden on the smallest employers.
Rostenkowski, for his part, is ignoring much of Clinton's 1,342-page proposal in search of three simple things to offer the 435-member House: "universal coverage, cost containment and 218 votes."
