Hospital Cost Containment Legislation Statement by the White House Press Secretary on House of Representatives Disapproval of the Legislation.

Let me say a word about hospital cost containment.

The President asked specifically that I say that the action of the House of Representatives is a blow to the fight against inflation. He asked me to say in addition that the action in the House was a victory for a highly financed, special-interest lobby, and a defeat for the common good. He asked that I point out that the action of the House today will add literally tens of billions of dollars to the Federal deficit in the coming years, and tens of billions of dollars to the cost of living for Americans who are already having difficulty making ends meet.

However, he also asked that I say that the ball game is not yet over and that we intend to continue to fight to contain hospital costs, which have increased 1,000 percent since 1960, and that we expect that hospital cost containment legislation will yet be passed either as a separate bill or as part of a national health insurance plan, one of which is now being considered by the Senate Finance Committee.