Alternative health plans may not deliver for the near-poor. (Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

    CATONSVILLE, Md. _ The possibility that health-care reform might leave her four children uninsured came as a surprise to Mary Stewart, a personnel manager who can't afford coverage for her kids now on her $22,500 salary. 
    ``I would feel very let down and cheated,'' said Stewart. ``A working person should have more advantages than a person on (welfare).'' 
    Here's the problem: Most of the 39 million the Clinton administration says are uninsured are in working families with incomes above the official poverty line, like Stewart's. While all the health-care reform proposals would help the poor, not all would provide much help for lower- to middle-income people. 
    As a consequence, millions of Americans may not be able to afford coverage under some ``reform'' plans. Indeed, a study by the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University in Washington has found problems with two of the top congressional alternatives to President Clinton's…