PERSPECTIVE ON THE CLINTON HEALTH PLAN : ‘Choice’ Belongs to Government : The details include $10,000 fines for trying to supplement the forced plan with real choice in doctors or treatment.

In Lewis Carroll’s classic “Through the Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice that when he uses a word, “it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.”

Similarly, when President Clinton describes his health plan, his words take on a Dumptyesque meaning unrelated to the English language or the President’s plans. Consider, for example, these passages from his State of the Union address:

“Our approach builds on what works today in the private sector . . . to guarantee private insurance for every American.” And: “If your employer is providing good benefits at reasonable prices, that should continue too.” And again: “Our goal is . . . freedom to choose a plan and the right to choose your doctor.”

In all, at three different points in his speech and in the most explicit terms, the President promised the American people that his plan would protect their right to choose private health insurance.

But the President is not telling the truth. Unless you are one of the privileged few who work for the government or for a huge corporation employing more than 5,000 people, the Clinton plan will cancel your private health insurance and force you to pay for a government-controlled plan.

When I explain this feature of the Clinton plan to audiences around the country, their first reaction is often one of disbelief. “This is America,” people say. “In this country, government could never force us to surrender our health insurance and jam us into some government-run collective.”

My response is to pull out my copy of President Clinton’s Health Security Act and read the following passages:

Pages 14-15: “In accordance with this act, each eligible individual (other than a Medicare-eligible individual) 1) must enroll . . . and 2) must pay any premium required, consistent with this act, with respect to such enrollment.”

Who’s an “eligible individual?”

Page 14: “In this act, the term ‘eligible individual’ means an individual who is residing in the United States and who is a citizen or national of the United States, an alien permanently residing in the United States under color of law or a long-term nonimmigrant.”

Only one conclusion can be drawn from all this legalese: Unless you’re an illegal alien, you must enroll in the government-run “regional alliance.” Never mind that you like your current insurance plan and don’t want to change it. The Clinton plan does not permit that option. Your private health insurance is canceled.

It gets worse. Suppose the National Health Board, which controls all the regional health-care cooperatives, decides that you don’t need treatments your doctor says you need? It can refuse to allow him to perform those treatments. Or suppose a drug that you desperately need is not, according to the board, “reasonably priced?” They won’t pay for it.

The government can tell your doctor that he can give you the service he thinks you need, but if the board thinks it’s too costly, the doctor’s income will automatically be cut. Even if you are willing to pay extra to the government cooperative to see your own doctor, you can still be denied that right.

And if you and your regular doctor think you need a specialist, the board can simply say no. But can you say no to this system and walk away? Sure, but every dime of your health-care money stays behind, and you have to keep paying into the system even if you flee from it.

But total confiscation and control of your health dollars is not enough for the Clinton plan. It also bans private health insurance that might compete with the government. On this issue, the language of the Clinton Health Security Act couldn’t be clearer: “No health plan, insurer or any other person may offer to any eligible individual a supplemental health-benefit policy that duplicates any coverage provided in the comprehensive benefit package.” (Pages 239-240.)

Moreover, “an entity that knowingly and willfully violates any provision of this section with respect to the offering of a supplemental health-benefit policy to any individual shall be subject to a civil monetary penalty (not to exceed $10,000) for each such violation.” (Page 241.)

Of course, the President hotly denies that his plan is a massive assault on freedom of choice. He is keenly aware that the Achilles heel of his plan is the unacceptable limit it places on the freedom of Americans to select the kind of health care that best suits them and their families.

To help them see through the double-speak of an earlier era, Winston Churchill laid out a series of simple questions that people could ask to determine if they lived in a free country. Let me propose three questions to help determine if the Clinton plan is built on true consumer choice:

* If I’m happy with the private health insurance I now have, can I keep it?

* If I become unhappy with the health care provided through the government-controlled plan, could I take my money out of that plan and put it into a private insurance plan?

* Even if the government keeps my health-care money, can I pay twice for coverage--once for the government plan I don’t want and a second time for the private health insurance I do want?

The answer to all three questions is No. Once the American people understand that, the Clinton plan is doomed.