WASHINGTON -- In a sharp break from past practice, the health insurance industry called yesterday for a new federal law that would require coverage for all Americans, define a basic set of benefits and try to contain health-care costs by limiting tax breaks for the purchase of insurance.
The board of directors of the Health Insurance Association of America, representing 270 commercial insurers, adopted a policy statement yesterday arguing that "the insurance industry itself needs reform."
The industry has often been described as an obstacle to change in the nation's health-care system.
But with the new proposal, to be announced today, the industry signals its willingness to accept sweeping changes, many of them similar to those proposed by President-elect Bill Clinton.
Details of the insurers' proposal remain to be worked out. Many of the unresolved issues are contentious. But Democrats and Republicans as well as business executives and labor unions agree that the nation must do something to help the 35 million people who do not have health insurance.
Carl J. Schramm, president of the association, said the new TC proposal was in the long-term financial interest of insurance companies.
For more than a year, the insurers have been denouncing proposals for a government-run program of national health insurance that would minimize the role of private insurers.
"This is probably the only way you preserve the private health insurance industry," Mr. Schramm said. "It's plain-out enlightened self-interest."
The insurers, like Mr. Clinton, endorsed the idea of universal coverage, mandated by federal law, along with new measures to control costs, including a larger role for the government in supervising fees charged by doctors and hospitals.
But the insurers did not support Mr. Clinton's proposal for an annual limit on all health spending, public and private.
The Health Insurance Association is one of many business groups that have offered to cooperate with Mr. Clinton since his election.
Many of these groups previously opposed overhauling the health-care system, but now say they see major changes as inevitable and want to help shape the results to their liking.
In Little Rock, Ark., Judith Feder, health policy coordinator for the Clinton transition team, welcomed the new proposal and described it as "a major turnaround" for members of the health insurance industry.
