Hoarding the health.

• Author: Greenblatt, Alan
• Position: Congress members do not want to participate in Pres Clinton's health insurance plan - Includes related article

Congress, the White House, and the bureaucracy want to stay out of the plan that will cover 83 percent of the country. You can bet that if they succeed, it'll be hazardous to your health

On September 22, President Clinton told a rapt nationwide audience that when it comes to health care, "We're all in this together." Two days later Congress had a chance to prove it. Paul Wellstone, the progressive senator from Minnesota, proposed an amendment to an unrelated spending bill "to assure that members of Congress participate on an equal basis with their constituents in [any] health care system" put into law in the coming months. As Iowa Senator Charles Grassley admitted, "It certainly would be the height of hypocrisy to develop such a system for our fellow citizens, but exempt ourselves from it."

And yet that's what they've decided to do. In defeating Wellstone's amendment, the Senate showed exactly what's wrong with Washington: Those on the inside are more interested in protecting themselves than in helping those on the outside. Members of Congress, instead of putting themselves in the same plan that covers the little guy or making what they currently get workable for the rest of the country, want to be able to buy a better deal in the new era. The result will be a government that won't fix the system's problems because the people running Washington won't be in the same boat as the rest of us.

Clinton's plan, as it currently stands, would create a "core-benefit package," a benchmark plan that would cover 83 percent of Americans. (The other 17 percent are expected to opt out and buy more coverage.) In his address, Clinton stressed "choice" as one of his six "basic values and principles" for reform. But under managed competition, those 83 percent are bound to lose a certain amount of choice, particularly on doctors they can see. There's a loophole for those with a loaded checkbook, though: People who want to choose their own doctor can pay for the privilege - and affluent Washington wants that privilege. One of the capital's best kept secrets is the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, which lawmakers and the federal bureaucracy want to keep. "We have long been in support of national health care," says Diane Witiak of the American Federation of Government Employees, "but we would not support a program that asked for a diminution of benefits for our members." In other words, the people who are supposed to be watching out for the public welfare are perfectly willing to let the public twist in the waiting room while the insiders are protected.

We're not just talking about being covered for luxurious extras like cosmetic surgery and in vitro fertilization. A recent University of Rochester study found that the uninsured, who have access to one-third less care, suffer serious problems such as more premature births and a 25 percent higher death...