Health Care Reform - Does It Have A Chance?

Not a week has passed in recent months without reports of "progress" in US health care reform. First, there were the Clinton proposals after lengthy "Hillary Clinton task force" deliberations, then various bills proposed by senators and representatives, after which came the continuous debates, and threats that there would be no summer recess until agreement had been reached.

But Congress has gone into recess with neither of the two chambers reaching a consensus on the subject. According to House Ways and Means Committee chairman Representative Sam Gibbons, health care reform is dead for this year. He noted that he plans to restart reform in January, but can offer no promises for success. Many law makers feel the reform movement has run out of steam, he added.

Leaders of the National Governors' Association have told Senator John Chafee that they are committed to bipartisan health care reform this year and praised his moderate bill of incremental reform. And in a letter to the Senator, they urged that Congress should not give up yet on reform. While they stopped short of endorsing Sen Chafee's bill, the governors said the proposal contains measures that are extremely important to them.