UNITED STATES OF AMERICA • Q:ongrrssionallt((ord

th PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 94 CONGRESS FIRST SESSION

VOLUME 121-PART 31

DECEMBER 11, 1975 TO DECEMBER 16, 1975

(PAGES 39861 TO 41102)

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1975 December 11, 19'1"5 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE 39897 political Caucus, a year old, had established Cabinet status and wide responsibllities for for the parties, and frequently an IneffectIve strength in each state delegation. issues relating to women and minorities. one for the nation." Women caucus leaders from Tennessee When the Watergate story began to unfold, Mondale tells what we ought to have knowl1 ("the Magnolla Mafia"), from North Caro­ she forthrightly criticized the President all along but have scarcely admitted to our­ lina, from all the other states rounded up for taping conversations but at the. time selves, that choosing presidential candidates 420 votes for Farenthold against Presidential saw no impeachable offense committed. Most is a "national process that deserves a na­ candidate George McGovern's choice, Senator Washington reporters credit her with weath­ tional design." Thomas Eagleton, of Missouri. At this point ering Watergate With clean skirts, but it Some of those who have given thought to Sissy withdrew,making the vote for Eagleton must have been deeply disappointing to one the problem have suggested !\ national pri­ nnanlmous. But that roll call did three who had worked so dlllgently for her party mary, an all-on-the-same-day nationwIde things. It proved that women conld make through the years. election. But this, in Mondale's view, weak­ their mark; it showed George McGovern, con­ She is fascinated by-and knOWledgeable ens if It does not destroy the function of the sidered the most pro-feminist of the candi­ about-foreign policy. "There is just no way national nOlninatlng conventlons,Whlch he dates, that even he was not immune to the we can withdraw to Fortress America. There sees as instruiuents necessary to reconcilia­ challenges of women; and It made Sissy is an unfortunate but natural inclinatIon tion of regional differences and establishment Farenthold a national role model for politi­ now just to attend to our business here, but of party \l1llty. A national primary would, In cal women. In February, 1973, the National that wouldn't work out. I think we need to addition, offer a bUilt-In advantage to those Women's Political Caucus elected her Its first understand long-range economics better. We candidates already· well-known or with the chairperson at its national convention in plan for short-range problem<; but we .need most extensive organizational and financlnl Houston. long-range answers." baCking. Wllat does Sissy Farenthold think about If she were President, what legacy would Mondale's answer, embodied in a bill he the presidency-is It so impossIble a job? "I she most like to leave? "We've been through Introduced in the Senate Thursday, is re­ don't think many of us know all that's In­ a period when Americans felt III at ease with gional primaries. It would divide the country volved," she says. "Right now I'm writing a themselves. We do not know quite where into six regions. In each region those states book on· the CIA and the whole intelligence our moorings are. I would like to have re­ choosing to hold prlma.rlea would all hold area. I am appalled at what I am learnlng­ stored a sense of confidence in. ourselves." them the same day. Each of the six regions how our Intelligence operations are used lIB would be assigned an election clay· to be alternatives to diplomacy. Do we even know determined by lot. The six election dates what a President knows of covert opera­ would be separated by two-week intercals. tions? Maybe we're going through a kind of SENATOR MONDALE ON REGIONAL The plan, Mondale says, would meet his charade in this country." PRIMARIES six criteria for a rational delegate selection If she became President, what legacy process: It would retain the national conven­ would she like to leave? "To finish the clvll Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, last tions; offer the broadest possible range of rights program Lyndon Johnson started. To week my colleague from Minnesota (Mr. candidates, InCluding those not biessed with restore our natural environment, and with MONDALE) introduced a bill to establish wealth or nl\1ne recognitIon; encourage broad it the human spirit. To establlsh a De­ a system of regional presidential pri­ party particIpation but llmlt the participa­ partment of Peace." maries to replace what he called our tion to those affillated with the parties; per­ mit candidates to conduct coherent cam­ ANNE L. ARMSTRONG Pl'esent "chaotic" means of nominating paigns in each region; prOVide a measure of Former Co-Chairman, Republlcan Nation[l,l Presidential candidates. Senator MON­ candidates' appeal to all sections, and be Committee; 47 years old; RepUblican. DALE said that he was introducing his of national design, giving undne weight to no In "the kind of country where the rattle­ bill "in the interest of contributing to one state or area. snakes back out," as folklorist J. Frank a national debate" on this important In Introducing his regional primary plan, Doble once described it, along the TnxllB gulf question. Mondale also said he "would like to see" coast, amid unrelleved miles of lacy, thorny President Ford, "first occupant of the White mesquite trees, is the small oasis around I am pleased to report that, in re­ sponse to his initiative, such a debate House whose presidency has not been the the century-old ranch house where Anne product of the existing nominating process," Armstrong llves. already has beglUl. A number of colum­ appoint a special commission to analyze that This is silent land. But inside the house nists and editorial writers have com­ process and evaluate alternatives. the incessantly ringing telephone breaks the mented on Senator MONDALE'S proposal, Perhaps Mondale would be satisfied If such stillness. Here In this remote spot Anne and I would like to share them with my a study is all that comes of hL<; proposals. Armstrong is bUSy. The former Co-Chairman colleagues. In any ca.~e, by placing his regional primary of the Republican National COmmittee, the Mr. President, I ask unanimous con­ plan before the Congress and the country, he former Counselor to President Nixon with sent that the following commentaries be has made an invaluable contribution. He Cabinet rank, remains a bright star in the printed in the RECORD. has forced us to take a more serious look at G.O.P. hierarchy. The White House, the Vice­ a situation which badly needs, at the very President's office, Cabinet members, news­ There being no objection, the material least, clarification. p[l,per editors, corporate executives, still was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, track her down for speeches, for advice, for as follows: [From the New York Times, Dec. 5, 1975] service on commissions. She sits on two cor­ [From the St. Paul (Mh1n.) Pioneer Press, CHEER UpI THINGS ARE TEllRIBLE porate boards of directors, American Express Dec 10, 1975] and Union Carbide. (By James Reston) THE MONDALE PLAN At 22 Anne Legendre, a pretty girl from WASHiNGTON, December 4-The only happy New Orleans, arrived In Texas to visit Sen. Walter Mondale has proposed a plan thought around here these days is that so friends and wound up marrying Tobin Arm­ to bring some order out of the chaotic proc­ many things are going wrong that maybe strong, the best-looking man in the state. ess of selecting candidates for the American something will finally be done about them. The Armstrongs had five children in five presidency. His proposal for a nationwide But only maybe. years and kept busy rWlUing their 50,000­ regional presidential primary system Is un­ It's a well-known rule in Washington that acre ranch. questionably a first-rate contribution to nothing compels reform like some Imminellt What has Influenced her life? "1 became pollt.lcal science in an area heretofore lamen­ disaster, or spectaCUlar stupidity, and we now very Interested In polltics and world events tably neglected. have so much of both on the national agenda when I attended Vassar, particularly in the It is a plan which m.ay have llttle chance that you have to have some hope. United Federalist Movement. Working In the of adoption. It is by no means a perfect Each day's hori'or stories about the past summer for a New Orleans newspaper-I plan, and Mondale is the first to adm.lt that. crimes of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., for ex­ loved that! Then coming here to this ranch. It may not even be a workable plan. But ample, add to the prospect that the Congress Ranch life has given me something I could what he proposes Is far and away better than will finally tal,e these secret agencies by the have got no other way-a real closeness With the formless, slipshod and basically unfair throat. family. process by which we now select the delegates The news from the politic[l,I front, with "As for politics, I have lived mine on a to the presidential nominating conventions. thirty Presidential primary elections, is fast "ery local level. There are a handful of Re­ Indeed, to call the way in whIch these becoming a national joke and actually forc­ publicans, maybe twenty, In this county. delegates are now 'chosen a "process" is to ing a little serious thought about funda­ The Republicans In Texas needed every warm dignify anarchy. No other free nation goes mental electoral reform. body they could get, so it was a good place to about selecting the candidates for its highest This may not be the best way to run a move ahead fast." office In so haphazard a manner or puts such democracy, but the record suggests that She did just that-as National Commit­ restraints upon free selectIon. Every one of nothing succeeds like failure. New York CJt.y teewoman from Texas and then up the lad­ the states and the District of Columbia goes had to go broke before we got fiscal reform. der to become Co-Chairman of the party its independent way in the free-for-all It took Vietnam to bring the military under with Senator Robert Dole of Kansn<;. In scramble. some kind of control, and Watergate to get 1973 her efficiency and wide popularity In As Mondale said in his Senate speech, "It·s rid of Richard Nixon. The price was high the Republlcan party led President Nixon to often a mindless process from the candidates' but some lessons were learned. appoint her'· to the White House, give her perspective, too often a self-defeating one Not many ~'ears ago, when Uncle Sam Wl\S 39898 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE Decembel\ll, 1975 the only cop on the block, he dIdn't hesItate Identlal primaries that would revolutionize into a complex maze of state laws, party regn­ to plunge into the Congo or Lebanon, but the way we choose delegates to the national lations, and un'l.-rltten traditions. he is not intervening now In Angloa or Le­ conventions that nominate "the people's "No other major nation chooses its leaders banon, though the situation In both places choice," in such a. chaotic manner and the question is is a llttle scary. The bill would set up six regIons (ours: whether we.should COntinue to do so," So there is a chance that we '1.'111 make Montana, the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wis­ :Mr. Mondale's answcl,' to his own questic,n similar progress in other fields. We are grad­ consin, Dllnois) each to hold a presidential Is "no." But, in the meantIme, -h~ thinks ually getting some fiscal reform, welfare prImary on one of six designated Tuesdays maybe It would help to group primaries by reform, even some, but not much Congres­ between iate March and mid-June. The regions into six areas and at least give can­ sional reform; but election reform '1.'111 be the dates, at two-week intervais, would be picked didates a chance to roam contiguous territory slowest and the toughest because It is In the by drawing lots. A state (like Minnesota) before goIng on to the next,_area, like 01<:­ hands of the pols who got where they are wouldn't have to have a presidential primary. fashioned cIrcuit-rIders. 1111der the old system. But, if it hp.d one, it would have to fit into Foreign political sclen~~ students have Nevertheless, Senator Walter :Mondale of the grand design. scheduled vIsits to the United States In 1976 Minnesota has come forward with a bill to Mondale, who learned about presidential for years ahead to see how the extraordinary improve, if not correct, what he calls the primaries the hard way during his year of system works, and ma.ny frankly acknowledge present mindless Irrational and chaotIc Presi­ wandering in the primary Wilderness, is fully that they don't believe any other country dential primary system. aware that his bill won't be rushed to a vote. could run it. In Canada, for example, elec­ He rejects the notions of a single national But isn't it time that we restored some tions take about two months or less from primary electIon, on the grounds that it faith in the reform approach to politics? start to finish, whereas most members of the would undermine the national conventions, Mondale's proposal ought to be taken seri­ U.s. House of Representatives start running give the well-known and well-heeled candi­ ously even though-Indeed, because-a long the minute they are elected for their two dates an unfair advantage, and risk too much educational campaign will be needed before year, fixed term. on a single roll of the dice. the country is ready for so dramatie a Georgia's former Governor Jimmy Carter, He proposes Instead that the states and change. who is a Democratic presidential aspirant, territories be divIded Into six regions, each The process could be qUickened if Presi­ acknowledged the other day In Washington of which would hold Its PresIdential pri­ dent Pord grasps an opportunity he could that he had been running full-tilt for two maries on one of sIx designated Tuesdays be­ llnk to the bicentenniaL It Is the appoint­ years. tween late :March and mId-June of Presl­ ment, on his own motion, of a bipartisan In Canada, incidentally. the Prime Min­ dential years. White House commission for a stem-to-stern ister and the Leader of the Opposition are The six prImary election dates, two weeks review of the nomination system. Mondale chosen by fellow members of the Legislature apart, would be assigned by lot to the six put this in his bill, but Ford could do it on who have seen them in l\,ction and know regions by the Federal ElectionsCommission his own. We thInk Ford would be roundly them. five months before the first primary, and Mr. applauded. The Founding Fathers ~xpect~d the Amer­ Mondale suggests a few sImple rules. Furthermore, there will be a llmited re­ ican President to be selected by an elite "States," he say, "could retain the rIght to gional experiment next year. This is the re­ group, banded in the Electoral College. determIne the partiCUlar type of primary sult of an agreement among Oregon, Idaho "In their only serious lack of foresight," (they wish) to have, how candidates qualify and Nevada to set May 25 as a common pri­ 1\1r. Mondale says sadly, "they rejected polit­ for Inclusion on the ballot. But," he adds, mary election date. Even if Mondale's grand ical parties; it took less than a decade for "voters In state PresIdential prImaries would design bill dies, the principle could be the much-feared "factions" to appear. only be allowed to particIpate in the party achIeved pragmatically by grassroots inter­ Theoretically, the U.S. political system has of their register affiliation, and states would state cooperation along that line. The Mon­ harnessed factions Into the two~party polit­ be prohIbited from llsting the names of dele­ dale bill could encourage that. ical system.' Yet "at the very core of our gov­ ernmental system," says Mr. Mondale, "there gate candidates on the primary ballot with­ What we have now, as Mondale said, is out indicatIng which PresidentIal candidate, chaos, disorder lmd irrationality. In truth, Is an inexpllcable absence of experienced if any, he or she is pledged to support." and sophisticated" discussion on how the sys­ the show biz side of politics at its worst. tem works, and its effect on· "the kind of Unfortunately, he sees no chance of any With reason, he asked, for instance, why reform before next year's primarIes. He is Presidents we ultimately elect," New Hampshire should cast such an inordi­ Sen. Mondale doesn't think his six re­ urging President Ford to establish an elec­ nate influence just because of the date of tions commission to stUdy the whole problem, gional 'primaries would be perfect and cer­ its primary. We have a mindless process for tainly couldn't be Installed for this election. and bring its recommendations to the Con­ candidates, a self-defeating one for parties, gress before the end of the Bicentennial year. But the situation is desperate. and an ineffectual one for the nation, as he "I am at a loss to understand how we can There will obviously be objections to the put it. We wUl wait with interest to see what states he has put In the six regions, some of continue to leave it in a continually chang­ happens, with the optimism of the old-time ing state of chaos, di\3order, and irration­ them strikingly dIfferent from others-New good government reformers we'd make the York with New England, for example. But he ality." JUdgement that the bill could be a kind of The new game of primaries is about to is trying to start a debate, and the chances time bomb. are that after the confusion of next year's start. prImaries, the disaster level will have risen The problems of schedullng simultaneous hIgh enough to force some changes. [From the Christian Science Monitor, primaries In widely separated states is seen Dec. 9, 1975) In this partial llsting of the primarIes: No present candidate, with the possIble ex­ The Massachusetts primary comes March 2, lhs Tnm COME FOR CHANGING THE U.S. ception of Jimmy Carter of Georgia, defends a week after New HampshIre, but New York the present system of cross-voting and selec­ PRIMARY SYSTEM? and Wisconsin both come April 6; Alabama, tive testing of candidates' popUlarity. As The (By Richard L. Strout) Georgia, IndIana, and the District of Colum­ New York Times observed recently: V1ASHINGToN.-When the football season bia all come May 4; Nebraska and West Vir­ ..It is fatuous to descl'ibe as participatol'Y is over, when the hockey season is fading, ginia May 11; Maryland and Michigan May democracy a nominating system that involves when the days begin to lengthen, the U.S. 13; Idaho, Kentucky, Nevada, and Oregon a wretchedly small proportion of the elec­ presidential primary contest starts in earnest. on May 25. Two other dates comprise the torate, that in some states encourages Dem­ list: June 1 for Mississippi, Montana, Rhode ocrats to help choose RepUblican candidates The race is for the most powerful· job pn earth. The first test matCh, in New HampshIre Island,and· South Dakota, and JuneS, for and vice vera, that grossly distorts the signif­ on Feb. 24, Is less than three months off, Arkansas, Callfonl1a, New Jersey, and Ohio. icance of the first few primary contests in an and is already bringing hopefuls through the (Arkansas may change its date to something election year, and rewards with money and earlier.) Inordinate publicity the states that hold snow. And William Loeb, the angry publisher them...... of the Manchester Union Leader, is already calling them names. [From the Redwood Falls (Minn.) Gazette, The only hope is that next year's thirty Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D) of Mllmesota, Dec. 9, 1975] primaries Will be s.uch a silly scramble that, ON REGIONAL PRIMARIES llS In other fieids, they will force the long who dropped out of the race after a year's overdue reforms. trying, calls the whole system bunk. What The Nation's 30·" Presidential prlnlarles a way to pIck the President of the United wouldgive way-in large parte-to perhaps six States! he exclaims. regional primaries withsimillir purpose but [j,'rom the Minneapolis Star, Dec. 8, 1975 J The 30 or so primaries form a trip wire presumably much more slgnlfic!1nt results if StatesSe~ate l\{ONDALE'S CURE FOR CHAOS obstacle course for ambitious politicians. a bill before the United ShO\lld be enacted.,..., '_..." ',' - • ._ BasIc political reform is not a pursuit for Frequently they occur simultaneously in dif­ New.Hamp~hire the short-winded. With the pl,'lillary starting ferent parts of the country, making it Im­ that season in Febrltary 1976,11. Is too late for In fact, reformers and proponents of struc­ possible for one candidate to be at all of Senator Walter Mpnda1e's., regipnal scheme tural reforms have, by and large, become them. to be of much help befoi'e, 19BO,but few frustrated, even cynical, about the slow re­ It's Irrational, it's preposterous, says :Mr. better bicentennialprbjects have beenpro­ sults of "good government.. reform. Mondale. pcs~d than laying "the groundworlc for re­ Yet here comes Sen. Walter M. Mondale "The system has evolved over nearly 200 placing the hodgepodge in Which states vie with a bill for a system of six regional pres- ,-ears withont design, structure, or purpose for position and influence, and thereby Decembel' 11, 19175 CONGRESSIONAL. RECORD - SENATE 39899 lengthen the tooc1ong presidential election The cost of health care services has ing quality health care for aU Americans process. Not only are the candidates spread increased at a rate virtually unparalleled without regard to income or to where 3n thin and 'worn down, the electorate tends among other goods and services. Within individual lives. In studying this goal and to tire of it all, lose some of the significance, just the past' 4 years public and private the health care proposals now before the l\,nd may, feel' theY'\'e .been used when na­ tional convention 'delegates do pretty much funds spent on hl;)alth care increased by Congress, I have .determined that there as they please. ".. ' "'. .. .. 50 percent and Federal expenditures in­ must be three essentials in any national Under Mondl\,le'splau? the six l'egional creased by 86 percent. In 1965, in re­ health insurance program. 'TIlese essen­ primary election dates would be two .weeks sponse to soaring medical costs we en­ tials include: Universal coverage, com­ apart, their order assigned by lot. He. would acted medicare, yet today the elderl:\-' are prehensive benefits. and very impor­ leaye most of the ground rules up to the forced to pay. moreformedical care than tantly, cost and quality controls. I states, except that they must keep a rein they did before medicare becamc law. emphasize the latter point, Mr. President. on those who WOUld· jump partylllles to Unforttmately, Mr." President, this do mischief," and' if delegates were. to be because it is essential that national elected, their cnoice of candIdates \yould be spiraling increase has not meant a com­ health· insurance include strong provi­ quantit~' shown. . " parable rise in the quality or of siOns to check the unnecessary and ex­ Minnesota is not RllJ.ongthe 30 presidential health cate available to most Americans. cessive rise in medical costs, while guar­ pl'imaries, simply because'this state's politi­ Indeed, the problems of access to medical anteeing fair and reasonable payments to cians let us try them, and went. away with care, waste, and duplication in medical doctors and other providers of medical burned fingers..The l\Iondale plan would re­ programs, and inadequate care for many services. 'TIle bill I am today cosponsor­ store this right, giving-it to Yoiers in all 50 have grown even more critical. ing does that. states. . ~ '. There' are many national groups, Mr. There Is no certainty, of course, that Rny I. UNIVERSAl. COV£aAGE scheme. as. !\fOl;1daIe's will. be enacted for President, that have provided useful I firmly believe that any national 1980. or even 2000;b\1t Uand when one Is, the -leadership on the health care problem, 11ealth insurance program must provide presidential electiOD,,process.,:'iil almost eel'­ helping those of us in the Congress iden­ coverage for every Arnerican. Quality tninly be gre~tly Impr<,)yed. . tify the magnitude of' the problem and medical care should not be dependent seek constructive solutions. Not surpris­ upon an individual's income or where he ingly, among those groups have been or ~he lives. The right to receive quality BAYH COSPONSORS HEALTH many unions who understand the im­ health care should be a birth given right . SECURITY ACT portallce of this issue, not only to their in this COtUltrY-.iust as individUals have members but to all Americans. The Com­ Mr.BAYH. Mr. President, today I am a right to a quality public education. mittee fOl' National Health Insnrance. Only one of the major health proposals joining as a cosponsor of S. 3,the Health tll1der the chairmanship of Leonard Security Act of 1975. I have made the before this Congress provides universal Woodcock, has been in the forefront of coverage fOl' all Americans-that pro­ decision to support this legislation only those looking carefully at the health se­ after careful study. of. the health care posal is S. 3, Health Security Act. curity problem. Recently, Mr. Woodcock Under the other .health insUl'ance pro­ needs of the American people, the need provided valuable testimony on this issue to stem the' rise in medical costs, and posals, the coverage afforded is either 011 to a House of Representatives subcom­ a voluntary basis or is offered only after the manner in·which the three major mittee. His testimony and other sources pending health insurance bills respond an individual has already incurred UP to pointto the following failures of national $2.000 in medical bills or has been hos­ to these needs. health policy: Pending legislation includes a na­ pitalized for 60 days. Over the last year. millions of Ameri­ II. COMPREHENSIVE BEN.tFITS tional insurance plan developed and en­ can families failed to obtain proper pre­ dorsed by the American Medical As­ ventive care for their children. Approxi­ Universal coverage goes hand in hand sociation, a catastrophic health insur­ mately 5.3 million preschool children did with another essential part of health ance plan introduced in the Senate by not receive immunization against such care-comprehensive benefits. Under my able colleagues from Louisiana and killlng and infectious diseases as polio, present health insurance systems, the Connecticut (Mr. LONG and Mr. RIBI­ measles, rubella, diphtheria, whooping emphasis has been placed on curative COFF) , and S. 3, the Kennedy-Corman cough, and tetanus, despite the ready treatment rather than preventive care. Health Security Act, introduced by the availability of easy and inexpensive pre­ Routine office visits and most outpatient Senator from Massachusetts and the ventive action. services usually are not covered. There Congressman from CalifoTI1ia. It has been estimated that last year are economic incentives for expensive I have concluded that only the Ken­ one-third of all pregnant women failed hospital visits and treatment, thus ex­ nedY-Corman bill meets the minimum to receive proper prenatal care, thus en­ acerbating the inflationary trend of criteria essential to solving the acute dangering not only their own lives. but medical COi;tS. while there are economic health care problems of our' Nation. disincentives for the safest and most their babies also. cost-effective care-early diagnosis and While constructive amendments may be INe have seen doctor strikes. public offered to S.' 3 as it moves through the treatment. hospital overcrowding, private hospital In the early 1930's and 1940'5 whell legislative process, it is clear that this and nursing home profiteering. A May is the proper vehicle for enacting health health insurance plans covered hospitai 1975 study by the Public Citizen Health visits almost exclusively. the use of hos­ insurance legislation. This is because it Research Group cited $8 billion in waste is the only one of the three bills that pital services increased. When the cover­ from excessive bed capacity alone. age was expanded to include surgery, the proceeds from the correct and essential Last year doctors' fees escalated at a premises that quality health care must number of operations increased. The re­ rate 40 percent faster than other items cent expansion of major medical cover­ be available to all Americans, and that in the Consumer Price Index. Hospital the effective cost control mechanisms are age has diverted health manpower re­ charges ran an incredible 105 percent sources into high cost specialized care. required to bring medical expenses in faster, or more than double the overall check. Yet today few insurance plans cover im­ inflation rate. munizations, laboratory and X-ray fee". THE STAT"L7S OF A!\.lERIC.-\N HEALTH C.\RF. These problems are not ones that can infant care for healthy babies or general Todar, the Nation is spending more be solved by a patchwork response. By physical examinations, the very preven­ than ever befol'e on health care. During now, most students of American health tive care that permits early detection of fiscal 1975. Americans spent $118.5 bil­ care agree that the time has come for a serious ailments and often avoids costly lion on health care; that is 8.3 percent national health insurance program. health care expenditures for more seri­ of the gross national' product. The Where the experts have differed has been ous treatment at a later date. $118.5 billionbreaks down to per capita over the type of program that would be Of all the major health insurance leg­ expenditures of $547 or three times per best suited to solve America's health care islation before the Congress. once again capita expenditw'cs in 1960. problems and at the same time. be enly S. 3, the Health SecUl·it~· Act pro­ While health care costs tripled in the affordable. vides comprehensive benefits. Under the past 15 years,the Consumer Price Index ESSENTI.\LS OF HE.AI..TH C.... RE Kennedy-Corman bill, comprehensive increased 85.6 percent. which while too The purpose of a national health in­ benefits include general hospital inpa­ great an increase, does Show the. dispro­ surance program is not simply to pay tient and outpatient services, physicians portionate· r1se in the cost ,of medical doctors' fees and hosI'ital costs. It en­ services, dental services fc.r children up care. compasses the broader concept of proyid- to 15 years of ag-e "ith eventual coverage