The Magazine   Jul 5, 1999, Vol. 4, No. 40 • By ROBERT M.
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Text Alerts  AS THE WHITE HOUSE GEARS UP to promote Bill
Clinton's universal prescription-drug benefit for the elderly,
it seems to have learned a thing or two from its historic
health-care defeat of 1994. Like that earlier plan, Clinton's
promise to pay for the prescription drugs of older Americans
will put health care for millions more people under the control
of the federal government -- in this case, the prescriptions of
nearly 40 million Medicare recipients. And like the earlier
plan, the Clinton drug benefit promises better care for less
money, but will inevitably end up with rationing and price
controls that will degrade the quality of care available to the
elderly. What's changed is that the White House is even less
forth-right about the true cost and character of its health-care
scheme than it was five years ago.  The White House is mindful
of the fact that Medicare is going bankrup