Unhealthy Reform

THE carrot of health-care reform that President Clinton used to tantalize the electorate during the 1992 campaign now looks more like a stick that would be used to whip consumers, physicians, and businesses into shape. Previewing his reform plan during a speech on August 16 to the National Governors Association in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Clinton spoke primarily about “security,” “individual responsibility,” and “a strong role” for the states and the private sector. But behind the pleasant rhetoric is a harsh plan that would impose strict regulation on any physician who refuses to join a managed-care network, would order all businesses to provide health insurance for all workers and pay stiff new taxes as well, and would set a ceiling on all public and private health-care spending in the United States, a ceiling enforced by the Federal Government.

While the White House has held hundreds of “information” meetings with interest groups over the past seven months, the shape of its plan was effectively determined in February when First Lady Hillary Clinton decided who would be invited to join her Task Force on National Health Care Reform.

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Grace-Marie Arnett

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THE carrot of health-care reform that President Clinton used to tantalize the electorate during the 1992 campaign now looks more like a stick that would be used to whip consumers, physicians, and businesses into shape. Previewing his reform plan during a speech on August 16 to the National Governors Association in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Clinton spoke primarily about “security,” “individual responsibility,” and “a strong role” for the states and the private sector. But behind the pleasant rhetoric is a harsh plan that would impose strict regulation on any physician who refuses to join a managed-care network, would order all businesses to provide health insurance for all workers and pay stiff new taxes as well, and would set a ceiling on all public and private health-care spending in the United States, a ceiling enforced by the Federal Government.

While the White House has held hundreds of “information” meetings with interest groups over the past seven months, the shape of its plan was effectively determined in February when First Lady Hillary Clinton decided who would be invited to join her Task Force on National Health Care Reform.