[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 35 (Friday, February 24, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E428-E429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 23, 1995
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of 
my colleagues an article in yesterday's Washington Post by John Solomon 
outlining those who profited from the health care debacle last year. 
Once again, the Clinton administration has demonstrated that those in 
their inner circles can benefit while the rest of middle-class America 
wrestles with the ongoing problems associated with the lack of health 
care coverage. According to this article, there are some who made as 
much as $100,000 in consulting fees. It seems to me that we as a 
Congress can and will do better--and at no extra cost to the American 
people.
  I hope my colleagues will take the time to read this informative and 
enlightening article.
               [From the Washington Post, Feb. 22, 1995]

          Health Care Reform Planners: Inner Circle, Top Fees

                           (By John Solomon)

       The White House touted the long hours and sacrifices of 
     those who crafted its ill-fated health care plan, but it 
     turns out that the work brought healthy rewards for a small 
     cadre of advisers and contractors.
       Some businesses got six-figure contracts. For select 
     advisers, there were consulting fees as high as $49 an hour, 
     allowing some to be paid up to $100,000, according to a 
     review of records released this week.
       The payments were made in spite of a warning from White 
     House lawyers to use full-time government employees, not 
     consultants.
       The Clinton administration has declined to say how much was 
     spent developing its health care plan. But amid the ruins of 
     President Clinton's Health Security Act, records obtained by 
     the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act lay 
     bare a multimillion-dollar hired bureaucracy.
       The Republican Congress has begun its own review.
       The primary beneficiaries were professional consultants, 
     with specialties ranging from projecting long-term health 
     costs to writing legislation.
       In all, the White House tapped about 1,000 people for work 
     and advice on the plan. Most of the high-profile experts 
     worked for free.
       The few who were paid were members of a White House inner 
     circle, hired as consultants for an extended period to work 
     on Hillary Rodham Clinton's health task force and working 
     groups and beyond, although White House lawyers cautioned 
     against it.
       ``To avoid ethical difficulties, the members of the cluster 
     groups, and especially the heads of issue working groups, 
     must be full government employees,'' aide Atul Gawande wrote 
     health adviser Ira Magaziner in a Feb. 2, 1993, memo.
       Gawande said the White House counsel's office had advised 
     that payments were ``not clearly in violation of any law'' 
     but it ``would give antagonists leverage for attacking us in 
     the press and possibly in legal channels.''
       Avis LaVelle, assistant secretary for public affairs at the 
     Department of Health and Human Services, said the consultant 
     payments were necessary to attract top caliber advice without 
     expanding the permanent federal work force.
       [[Page E429]] Critics disagree. ``I think it is a very 
     dangerous trend to have this kind of private-public 
     partnership where it insinuates into the very process of 
     government corporations and individuals that stand to profit 
     from it,'' said Jane Orient, head of the Association of 
     American Physicians and Surgeons, which successfully sued to 
     force the White House to disclose task force working 
     documents.
       HHS paid at least a dozen advisers to Hillary Clinton 
     between $33 and $49 an hour in consulting fees. Among the 
     highest paid was Walter Zelman, a former California state 
     official and activist for the citizens group Common Cause. He 
     received $101,649 in consulting fees between January 1993 and 
     March 1994, at a rate of $48.39 an hour, according to HHS 
     records. Zelman left the administration after the plan's 
     defeat.
       Another top consultant was Brian Biles, who was paid 
     $97,950 over the same period. Biles, a former congressional 
     staff aide, began as a consultant and eventually was hired as 
     a deputy assistant secretary at HHS. He recently left for the 
     private sector.
       The AP identified at least 18 members of the working groups 
     as receiving $851,620 as HHS consultants. They included:
       Clifton Gaus, former director of Georgetown University's 
     Center for Health Policy Studies: $87,336 at $357 a day. He 
     now heads the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research at 
     HHS.
       Roz Lasker, a University of Vermont medical professor and 
     former analyst with the Physician Payment Review Commission: 
     $85,151 at $46.48 an hour. She works full time at HHS.
       Lawrence Levitt, a former California state insurance 
     official: $70,429 at $33 an hour. He has left the 
     administration.
       Arnold Epstein, a Harvard University medical professor: 
     $47,999 at $48.78 an hour. He has returned to his job.
       At the same time, some medical professionals who 
     volunteered their time to advise the task force could not 
     even get their travel costs reimbursed. ``I paid for the 
     privilege,'' said Norman Fost, a University of Wisconsin 
     researcher who absorbed $7,000 in travel expenses.
       He wrote a letter in March 1993 seeking reimbursement for 
     colleagues who were ``experiencing more severe hardship.'' 
     His plea fell on deaf ears.
       Several contractors also were hired for technical tasks. 
     Some work multiple hats.
       VHI Lewin, a Washington-based consulting firm, did numerous 
     studies for both proponents and opponents of health reform. 
     At the same time, the company was paid by the government to 
     analyze the Clinton plan's impact on long-term care and 
     academic hospitals.
       Meantime, VHI Lewin produced what it called an independent 
     study of the economic assumptions in the administration plan. 
     The company picked up the tab for the study, touted 
     repeatedly by Cabinet officials as independent proof that the 
     plan was solid.
       The company maintains it did not have a conflict in doing 
     both jobs, saying the personnel who worked on the federal 
     contracts were kept separate from those who did the public 
     analysis.
       ``We were doing studies for a wide variety of people, 
     including people who opposed the Clinton plan very ardently 
     as well as people in the government,'' founder Larry Lewin 
     said. ``And we tried to do that and maintain the balance so 
     no one side could make the claim they were exerting influence 
     over our objectivity.''
     

                          ____________________