The Nation - News from Aug. 20, 1986

A government advisory panel recommended that Americans be protected from the devastating costs of catastrophic illness through better and more comprehensive health insurance. The panel presented its report to Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen, who was ordered by President Reagan in his State of the Union address last February to study the problem and come up with recommendations by the end of the year. The advisory committee said it agreed with Reagan Administration policy that the best solution lay in better private insurance coverage, not through more government programs.