Health Care Bill Clears House

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 29) -- A health care bill that would allow workers to keep their medical insurance when they change jobs has cleared the House, but it faces an uncertain future in the Senate and with President Bill Clinton.

House members OK'd the bill Thursday 267-151, but it contains provisions for medical savings accounts and caps on medical malpractice awards that may not survive the next round of negotiations.

In fact, House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the Associated Press the provisions could be dropped if necessary to avoid a presidential veto.

"But we want to make the case," Gingrich said. "We want to try to convince him."

In his State of the Union address in January, Clinton made a major pitch for transferability of medical insurance. The House bill goes to the Senate, where Sens. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have built support for a simpler measure.

The measures are an attempt to help workers who, because they have pre-existing medical conditions, find it impossible to change jobs.

The Republicans favor the tax-exempt medical savings accounts, which would permit people under 65 to make tax-exempt deposits to an account for future medical costs.

The Clinton Administration says this would cost $1.8 billion over seven years and represents a tax break for wealthy people. And some Congressional Democrats accuse Republicans of catering to insurance companies that are pushing the accounts.

"Follow the money," said Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) "The Golden Rule Insurance Company has given more than $1.4 million to the GOP and coincidentally, Golden Rule just happens to be the premier company peddling medical savings accounts."

Democrats attempted to strip away the controversial provisions, but that failed 226-192.

In other health-related action, a Senate committee has endorsed a measure to accelerate the Food and Drug Administration's process for approving new treatments for fatal or untreatable diseases.

The measure, authored by Kassebaum, would require FDA to evaluate all new medical therapies within six months. If it does not, Congress could privatize its functions.

If FDA approval took longer than six months, the bill would also allow drug companies to request immediate approval

Critics say a speed-up could allow harmful drugs to go on the market without an adequate review.

The Kassebaum proposal was followed by a similar one Friday by Clinton, who announced an initiative to make new cancer drugs available faster..

Clinton said the streamlined approval system, which will go into effect at the FDA immediately, will get dozens of new drugs to the more than 1,500 Americans suffering from cancer. The FDA said that although risks accompany an expedited process, there are no other available therapies for cancer.

The deregulation was proposed by Vice President Al Gore's "reinventing governtment" innitiative. The Associated Press reported that FDA Commissioner David Kessler said politics was not involved in the decision to make the changes.

Health Care Bill Clears House

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