Jewish groups are giving initially favorable reviews to President Clinton’s long-awaited plan to reform the nation’s health care system.
But many in the Jewish community say they are waiting to take an official position on the plan until they have a chance to study it in greater detail.
Clinton’s plan, announced in a nationwide television address Sept. 22, is viewed by many Jewish leaders as a good first step in making sense of the complicated health care debate now engulfing the country.
They say they support Clinton’s effort to establish universal health care coverage in America, which would guarantee health care for the unemployed and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Jewish groups are particularly pleased by the plan’s coverage of some prescription drugs and some long-term care, both of which would benefit the elderly.
That is because the Jewish community is among the oldest ethnic groups in the country, with a mean age of 44 compared to a mean age of 33 for the American population as a whole.
Groups such as Agudath Israel of America, which represent fervently Orthodox Jews, who tend to have a high birthrate, praised the plan’s coverage of prenatal and postnatal care.
Other groups praised the plan, but would like it to go even further.
The American Jewish Congress, for instance, called the plan “an excellent basis for the vital national debate on health care,” but said it would like the plan to be modified to include comprehensive mental health care, long-term care and dental benefits.
The National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, an umbrella group representing national and local Jewish organizations, adopted its own set of principles on national health care this past June.
NJCRAC’s plan calls for a national health care plan with comprehensive care and a choice of health care providers.
The group’s associate executive vice chair, Diana Aviv, said NJCRAC plans to hold a meeting Oct. 11 to discuss Clinton’s plan in greater depth.
She said that her own initial response to the plan was positive, for the most part. “He’s gone a long way to meet” the concerns raised in the NJCRAC plan, she said.
But she added that it was too soon to tell what would eventually result from Clinton’s proposals, which face formidable obstacles in Congress.
The president is expected to submit his plan formally to Congress within a few weeks.
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