Winter Woes 
Weary Homeowners Battle Stubborn Ice And Snow

Alfred Weisenbacher 
Jan. 10, 1994 
Alfred H. Weisenbacher, 68, Of Country Club Apartments, Dallas, Died Monday At 
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Plains Township.

Wednesday, January 12, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 8A QUICK WORDS: GEISINGER'S EDGE WOULD
BE DULLED BY CLINTON PLAN 





Geisinger's edge would be dulled by Clinton plan &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Top-quality care; comparatively low cost; salaried doctors who focus on
patients, not money; small-town medicine backed by the resources of a
nationally known hospital..."Gee," a reader might have thought. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "If the Geisinger Health System is the model for the Clinton health plan,
maybe the president's plan isn't so bad." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Maybe. But something was missing from Tuesday's profile of the Geisinger
health system in Pennsylvania -- and the gap should make you even more
suspicious of the Clinton plan than you may have been beforehand. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For Geisinger's success, which the profile documented, has been achieved in
a free-market health system. Geisinger has kept its costs low and quality high
by responding to the marketplace, which rewards that kind of excellence. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Would Geisinger be able to keep doing so once the federal government takes
over? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Well, did you think of the word "excellence" the last time you stood in a
government line? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In other words, it's clear that "Geisinger is in the best position of any
hospital system or health plan for adopting to ... the changes proposed by
President Clinton," as the story said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But it's downright murky that Geisinger would look the same after those
changes. What would a few years of Washington budgets, spending caps,
one-size-fits-all insurance and National Health Board commands do to the
Geisinger system? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Picture it. You won't like what you see. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Supporters of the president will say that the Clinton health plan includes
free-market provisions. And it does -- but nowhere near enough of them to
encourage systems like Geisinger's to keep their world-class quality. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Instead the plan seems to have been writen on sandpaper, each page rasping
off more of the free market's gleaming finish. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Item: The proposed National Health Board would basically be a Supreme Court
of Health, with control over the health benefits, medical treatments and
choice of doctors available to every American. Item: New treatments and
technologies would have to be approved by Congress or the board before they
could be covered by the plans. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Item: Washington planners would set "global budgets," meant to cover every
medical procedure from Gov. Robert Casey's heart-lung transplant to your
daughter's measles shot, under pressure of ratcheting down the growth in
health spending so that it could meet the general inflation rate by 1999. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Item: The planners' fingers would even reach down to toy with things like a
hospital's medical staff. A National Council on Graduate Medical Education
"would control the number of physicians allowed to practice and in what
specialties," write health analysts Merrill Matthews Jr. of the National
Center for Policy Analysis, and Molly Hering of the American Legislative
Exchange Council. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 These and other "reforms" have one thing in common: They take ultimate
control over Geisinger's services out of Danville and hand it to Washington.
That's why a portrait of the Geisinger system today has little to do with the
proposed Clinton/Geisinger system of tomorrow. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Don't misunderstand. We favor health reform. The president has done America
a great service by putting this item atop the national agenda. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But we urge Washington to consider two things. The first is that the
Geisinger health system (among others) already is achieving the lower costs
and higher quality that Americans are demanding. That stills at least one of
the winds blowing us toward radical reform. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The second is that Geisinger's success is built on familiar free-market
soil. It's the same ground that supports our grocery stores, our shopping
malls and our entertainment industries, cornucopias that make the American
lifestyle one of the most envied in the world. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Let's think hard before we point the earthmovers at such an institution.

Geisinger's Edge Would 
Be Dulled By Clinton Plan 
Top-quality Care; Comparatively Low Cost; Salaried Doctors Who Focus On 
Patients, Not Money; Small-town Medicine Backed By The Resources Of A 
Nationally Known Hospital....

Geisinger's Edge Would Be Dulled By Clinton Plan Top-quality Care; Comparatively Low Cost; Salaried Doctors Who Focus On Patients, Not Money; Small-town Medicine Backed By The Resources Of A Nationally Known Hospital....