Health Insurance Confrontation Likely

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole is setting up a confrontation with President Clinton as he maneuvers to include medical savings accounts in health insurance legislation.

The House and Senate overwhelmingly have approved versions of the bill, but a dispute over the accounts has stalled efforts to blend the two versions.

Democrats still were charging Wednesday that Dole, Clinton’s Republican presidential rival, is trying to stack the House-Senate conference committee, which will negotiate a compromise, with senators who favor medical savings accounts.

“A bill containing them cannot be enacted into law and signed by the president,” insisted Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who sponsored the original bill with Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan.