[Headline] Disabled Group Backs Clinton Plan

[Subheading] Activists roll into East Room for pep talk on health care

Associated Press

Washington

President Clinton got an emotional boost for his proposed health reforms yesterday from advocates for the disabled who packed the East Room of the White House in wheelchairs.

“This is not just a health care issue. It's a work issue," said the president, who said reform would “empower" disabled Americans by outlawing discrimination by insurers and making it easier for the disabled to get jobs.

Justin Dart, a former Reagan administration official, roused the audience with the declaration, “We are willing to die for our country, but not for our insurance companies.”

“No more excuses. No more exclusion. No more profiteering. No more Band-Aid solutions,” said Dart, who once ran the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

Clinton, whose plan would offer working disabled people a tax credit of up to $15,000 a year for personal assistance services, urged the leaders of the disabled to help him fight for health coverage for all Americans. “You are carrying on your shoulders now not only your own cause but ours as well,” he said.

The disabled leaders chanted, “Free our people! Free our people!” after the president's speech.

Later they joined 2,000 others, most in wheelchairs, who streamed across the Memorial Bridge and rallied at the Lincoln Memorial to demand long-term care and personal attendant services as part of health reform.

Meanwhile, proponents of Canadian-style single-payer health reform began an advertising campaign yesterday. In three television and radio ads, comedians Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller spoof the insurance industry's $10 million Harry and Louise ad campaign, in which a husband and wife complain that the Clinton health plan would mean more government bureaucracy and less choice.

The ads promote a government-run system proposed by Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Representative Jim McDermott, D-Wash., which has 91 House and five Senate sponsors.

The single-payer approach, which would be financed by taxes, would eliminate health care insurers and have the government pay most medical bills.

In one ad, Meara weeps while watching Harry and Louise on television. “I’m confused about Harry and Louise,” she sobs, adding, "They're so confused about health care. They keep saying there's got to be a better way."

“There is,” Stiller replies. “The single payer system where everyone's covered, you get full benefits and you choose your doctor.”

Money for the campaign is being raised by organizations such as Public Citizen, a San Francisco based grass-roots lobby called Neighbor to Neighbor and Single Payer Across the Nation. They spent $250,000 on the ads and hope to raise $1 million.

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