Opinion> Hillary Clinton> Talking It Over 1996 02 10

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Talking It Over

I always admired Christopher Reeve as an actor. I never saw him on Broadway, but like most people, I loved his movie portrayal of Superman and his role in the fantasy romance "Somewhere in Time."

My admiration has only grown since his riding accident last May. Christopher Reeve is no longer playing a part that's heroic. He's living one.

Hooked up to a ventilator and paralyzed from the neck down, he has inspired millions with his courageous response to a tragic and freak fall from a horse. Who wasn't moved by his candor and grace in the memorable interview he gave to Barbara Walters just a few months after his spinal cord was crushed?

Now, along with his painstaking recovery, he faces medical bills totaling $400,000 a year. With an insurance policy that limits the lifetime benefits he can receive, his coverage is due to run out after three years.

Still, he never dwells on his own situation. As a celebrity, he knows he can make a living giving speeches and directing films. He is far more worried about the tens of millions of Americans who can't get or keep medical coverage because of the misplaced priorities of our health care system.

Christopher Reeve wants to know why our country is willing to spend billions of dollars on Medicare and Medicaid payments to cover nursing-home fees for quadriplegics and those suffering from neurological diseases like Lou Gehrig's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's but not spend the lesser amounts it would take to find cures.

I know the health care reform effort I worked on was not successful. But the issues it raised and the problems it sought to resolve are still with us today.

The United States is the only industrial society in the world where insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage to people who are sick or have lost a job. And insurance companies continue to get away with limiting people's lifetime benefits.

As Christopher Reeve said just last week, "These issues are crucial to our welfare."

There are ways to make progress without a massive overhaul of the health care system.

Right now, a bipartisan bill that deals with some of these issues is stuck in Congress. Sponsored by Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and Democratic Sen.

Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the bill would make long-overdue changes in the ways insurance companies treat Americans.

It would prevent insurers from denying coverage to a person who already has a medical condition. It would forbid insurance companies from dropping longtime customers when they become chronically ill.

And it would require insurance companies to sell policies to workers who have been covered for at least 18 months by their employers so that they remain insured even if they lose or leave a job.

There is also an amendment to the bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, that would help the 230,000 Americans in situations similar to Christopher Reeve's. It would raise the lifetime limit on benefits to a minimum of $10 million.

The Kennedy-Kassebaum bill has support from dozens of Republicans and Democrats. It is now ready for a vote by the full Senate. Very few legislators have publicly opposed the bill.

So why hasn't it passed?

Because a handful of senators have used parliamentary maneuvering to stall it for five months. To make matters worse, we cannot even hold the senators accountable because the Senate's rules allow then to remain anonymous.

Christopher Reeve is pushing hard for passage of Kennedy-Kassebaum and the Jeffords amendment. He also is doing his part to educate people about the failures of a system that spends far more money on expensive treatments than on preventing and curing costly diseases.

He has written to the President and House Speaker Newt Gingrich about congressional threats to cut funds for research into spinal cord injuries and neurological diseases (and is proud to have lobbied successfully against some of those cuts).

He has worked on animated diagrams for television that explain what happens to the body when the spinal cord is injured. And he recently announced an effort to establish the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California at Irvine that will support the study of spinal cord injuries and diseases. Philanthropist Joan Irvine Smith has agreed to put up $1 million for the project to be matched with money from other sources.

"There is a humanitarian and economic rationale" for medical research and fair insurance policies, he says. "It's good for the country in every conceivable way."

If you agree with Christopher Reeve, take the time to call your senators and ask them to help us take a first step to bringing better health and peace of mind to millions of Americans. Tell them to pass the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill.