President Clinton said that he could not accept health-care legislation with less of a guarantee of universal coverage than Sen. George J. Mitchell's bill, which would require employers to pay half the cost of their workers' health insurance if other measures did not reach 95 percent of Americans by 2000.
The majority leader's bill has been criticized by some liberals as moving too slowly toward universal coverage from the current level of 85 percent. But the president said in a telephone interview that he accepted the bill's premise that "if you can get 95 percent by the year 2000, that's evidence you can get to universal coverage without a mandate" requiring employers to pay.But, he insisted, "you have to have some sort of backup mechanism in case that fails." Asked if there was any other approach that would substitute, he replied: "Everybody sat around here breaking their brains over what other alternatives were available. None emerged before he put his bill in. I can't imagine - I just don't know what other alternatives there are."
He and Mitchell got a major assist Wednesday when the American Association of Retired Persons endorsed the Mitchell bill as well as the more-sweeping House leadership bill.
The giant organization, which had held back from formal endorsement of any proposal until Wednesday, said neither bill was perfect, but it was time to make "difficult choices." It cautioned, "If either bill is defeated, health-care reform will be dead for years to come."
The group's endorsement is likely to produce a torrent of phone calls and letters to Congress from its 33 million members.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate debated the Mitchell bill for a second day, with Sen. John H. Chafee, R-R.I., striking a particularly conciliatory note. "I firmly believe that the Senate has the courage and the wisdom to put partisanship aside, to enact health-care reform with broad support, for the good of our country," he declared.