US Senate Mulls Healthcare ID Proposal

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A plan to assign every American a lifetime health-care ID number, similar to a Social Security number, could face new limits under a measure headed for Senate debate. A provision introduced Thursday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, would prohibit the Health and Human Services Department from going forward with the plan until Congress approves its specifics. Critics say the system, being developed as part of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, could invade privacy by opening medical histories to insurers, employers and others. The law guarantees that anyone changing or losing a job would be able to get health insurance, even with a pre-existing medical condition. ``The plan, as HHS intended to carry it forward, raises questions of excessive government involvement and control -- not to mention privacy,'' Hutchison said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee added Hutchison's amendment to an $82 billion spending bill funding the Labor, Education and Health and Human Services departments as well as several related agencies for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The committee approved the overall bill with little debate and sent it to the Senate. But some members said they planned to introduce more controversial issues into the bill during floor debate, including provisions dealing with federal funding of single-sex classrooms and allowing Medicare recipients to go outside the program for care not covered by the plan.

President Clinton has threatened to veto a matching bill in the House because it lacks money for some of his favorite programs, such as summer jobs for poor youth and low-income heating assistance. Also Thursday, the Senate resolved a dispute over staffing at the Federal Election Commission, clearing the way for passage of a $29.9 billion spending bill funding the Treasury Department and related agencies. The Treasury bill was pulled from the Senate floor in late July because of Democratic objections to a Republican amendment that would have made it easier to remove the FEC's staff director and general counsel. With resolution of the issue, the bill passed 91-5 Thursday without further debate.

Introduced by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the disputed amendment sought to limit to four years the currently open-ended terms of the two officials and to require approval of four of the FEC's six commissioners before the terms could be extended. Each party selects three commissioners. Democrats, led by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, contended the amendment would let one party remove an official for no reason and undermine the agency's independence. Under a compromise worked out with Levin, the current general counsel and staff director would not have term limits, future service would be set at six years with votes of only three commissioners required to approve an extension.

The $27 billion House bill, which passed in July, does not include language on the FEC staffers. Differences will have to be worked out in a House-Senate conference. The Senate bill, which would increase money for drug enforcement, gang resistance and customer service by the Internal Revenue Service, establishes spending at $7.85 billion for the IRS, $1.7 billion for the U.S. Customs Service and $593 million for the Secret Service.

Like the House bill, it would freeze salaries for members of Congress but would allow 3.6 percent cost-of-living raises for other federal workers. It also was amended to require federal employee health plans that cover prescription drugs to provide coverage for contraceptives.

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. By Cassandra Burrell, Associated Press Writer, Friday, September 4, 1998; 1:39 a.m. EDT