The House panel considered friendliest to the White House health plan is scuttling President Clinton's mandatory insurance-purchasing alliances even before formally beginning its work.

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After a caucus of Democratic members of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., said Monday his subcommittee will work instead from a plan that lets the states decide whether to create voluntary or mandatory purchasing cooperatives or to have none at all.The president has had difficulty selling Congress on his blueprint for changing the way Americans buy insurance and get medical care. The purchasing alliances also were scrapped by a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

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