NATIONAL HEALTH REFORM DETAILS NEED TO BE MADE PUBLIC BEFORE ACTION

It wasn't all that long ago Democrats and much of the media were sniping at Republicans in Congress for failing to articulate a GOP health-care reform plan. Even though there were several Republican alternatives, most notably one written by New Hampshire Sen. John Chafee, the criticism was in large part valid. Random Republicans authored health-care reform proposals, but none garnered much backing from fellow party members. Instead, GOP leaders seemed to enjoy not being tied down to specific positions other than being opposed to the most controversial points of President Clinton's plan. Such a strategy is less than courageous.

All this changed, however, when Bob Dole, Senate minority leader, unveiled his version of health-care reform several weeks ago. By lining up solid Republican support, Dole put his party squarely on record with a plan that opened up health insurance for millions more Americans. The Dole plan addressed the bipartisan issues of portability, accessibility and pre-existing conditions while avoiding a government takeover of one-seventh of the U.S. economy.

Dole's plan left health-care decisions in the hands of the individual, not government bureaucrats, by focusing on insurance reform rather than nationalization.

Reasonable people may disagree with the Dole plan, and some areas need work. But the plan is a straightforward attempt to address deficiencies in the current system. The Kansan's proposal even drew praise from rank-and-file Democratic members of Congress -- if not from their leaders.

Now, it is the Democrats and their White House leader who are struggling to find a plan. Indeed, support for the socialization of health care as proposed by the president has dropped so precipitously that anything attached to the Clinton name is currently suspect. This is understandable, thanks to the secrecy, obfuscation and scare tactics the Clinton administration has employed in an attempt to steamroll a plan through Congress. A recent federal court decision that the first lady's health care task force may have broken laws and White House health care czar Ira Magaziner may have committed perjury over this matter is an example of the problems the Clintons created for themselves. The greatest problem was that even a Democrat-controlled Congress protested the proposal's operative principles as being ill-conceived.

Earlier this week, Senate majority leader George Mitchell unveiled the principles of a new plan. This comes on the heels of House majority leader Dick Gephardt's announcement of another plan the week before. The two Democratic leaders concede their goal isn't so much specific health-care reform as getting whatever legislation they can through their respective houses and then working out the differences in the conference committees where they dominate. On Wednesday night, President Clinton endorsed this strategy.

Passing two divergent plans, one still unwritten and both unread, isn't going to be easy. Nor should it be. Such tactics make a sham out of representative government, cynically revealing the motive for such action as pure politics. Already, some moderate Democrats have criticized the strategy, with Sen. David Boren of Oklahoma calling it "terrible and tragic."

If Sen. Mitchell and Rep. Gephardt want to do the country a service rather than score political points with their liberal friends, it is time they put aside the partisan attacks, the smoke and mirrors and the parliamentary shenanigans and begin working with the more moderate members of their party, as well as the Republicans. A starting point would be to allow Bob Dole's plan to be debated. So far Sen. Mitchell and Rep. Gephardt's buddy, Speaker Tom Foley, have kept this from happening -- perhaps out of fear that Dole's common-sense approach would be more popular than their own.

The second thing the Democratic leaders should do is join the Republicans in promising not to vote on any plan -- Bob Dole's, George Mitchell's or any other -- until it has been completely written and is in the hands of Congress for at least a week.