CLINTON REFORM MOVES, AS CONGRESS RECESSES

During the two months' recess before the US Congress reconvenes January 25, the Clinton Administration is mobilizing and taking the health care reform plan to the nation. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, about 20 Cabinet members visited hospitals and the Democratic National Committee distributed 10,000 copies of a video, Health Care Security: Challenge to America, and a million copies of its brochure, What the President's Plan Means For You. Regional health care conferences featuring Hillary Clinton are also planned.

With people convinced that the plan is good for the USA, they now need to be convinced it is good for their families, said Harvard public opinion expert Bob Blendon. Recent polls show a slip in public support for the plan, but he felt the North America Free Trade Agreement win will give it a boost. Senator Tom Daschle said it was critical to use the coming weeks to counter the paid information campaign now underway to the public and on Capitol Hill.

At a hearing in Vermont, Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee chief Edward Kennedy and Vermont Senator James Jeffords (the bill's only Republican co-sponsor) heard that the state is ready to revamp its health care system on its own, with little or no help from federal government. Sen kennedy told the meeting: "we're trying to give a lot of flexibility to the states." Vermont governor Howard Dean asked for assurances that the state could require employers to pay health insurance premiums, whether or not that will be required nationally. Other speakers wanted to be sure that the federal bill would permit a single-payer system. Gov Dean says the Clinton plan should be speeded up; he has already proposed universal coverage in vermont in 1995, three years before the Clinton plan would do so.