GOP Slammed By Steve Forbes On Health Care

Republicans in the USA are about to be outflanked again, and this timeon health care, according to former Grand Old Party presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who has faxed a memo to all Members of Congress and about 7,000 Republicans throughout the country on this issue.

The memo - produced by Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity, a think-tank formed to promote Mr Forbes' ideas - questions why Republicans are so determined to remain passive and defensive. Health care is a major issue for the millions of Americans who do not have health insurance, he said, with the lack of coverage for their children "especially gripping."

President Clinton and the Democrats are exploiting this legitimate concern to advance their scheme of a national health care system, he wrote, noting that rather than signing onto these liberal plans being proposed to cover some or all of the uninsured children, as has Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, Republicans should come up with their own conservative initiatives. Among Mr Forbes' suggestions are Medicare reforms, changes in the tax code and greater use of medical savings accounts.