Bush Endorses Push for State Medical Plans

SEATTLE —  President Bush Sunday pledged to cooperate with the nation’s governors, gathered here for their summer meeting, in their efforts to find state solutions to the nationwide problems of soaring costs and limited access to medical care.

Meanwhile, however, Democratic governors after a partisan struggle failed to amend a proposed National Governors’ Assn. policy statement to put more pressure on the White House and Congress to develop a program that would assure more Americans of satisfactory medical care at affordable prices.

“Your draft policy calls for comprehensive state reforms,” Bush told the governors over a two-way satellite hookup from the summer White House in Kennebunkport, Me. His remarks reached the states’ chief executives as they were thrashing out details of a policy statement on health care, which is the main order of business at the conference.

If the governors adopt a policy based on state innovations, the President said: “We want to work with you. We’ll do our best to remove federal obstacles to state-designed solutions.”

The White House has good reason to welcome the governors’ participation on the issue. The Bush Adminstration has proposed no initiative in this area and left the field to the Democrats, who have introduced a number of legislative proposals--all of which would involve a larger role for the federal government.

“The congressional debate has been over how far the federal government should go in dealing with this problem,” said Lanny Griffith, the White House aide in charge of intergovernmental relations, who is monitoring the governors’ discussions here.