    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 21, 1993]
    [Pages 1398-1400]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    August 21, 1993

        Good morning. In the past few weeks, our Nation has taken a bold
    first step toward a new economic destiny. The economic program I signed
    into law earlier this month reduces the deficit and embraces the core
    values of America: the values of the middle class, of small business, of
    rewarding hard work and giving the next generation as bright a future as
    our parents gave to us. This was a crucial first step in strengthening
    the quality of life all across our Nation.
        With the passage of the economic plan, Americans will be assured of
    lower deficits, lower interest rates, and real economic growth rooted in
    incentives for small and new businesses and new investment incentives
    which bring better jobs, better wages, and new economic opportunities.
        Now we must take the next step. We must reform our health care
    system so that you and every American will be assured not only of
    economic security but the security of knowing that health care is always
    there for you. We also have to reform health care because we're spending
    tens of billions of dollars on things that do not make us healthier but
    instead endanger our economy further.
        Unless we provide quality and affordable health care, we can't bring
    this Federal deficit down to zero and balance the budget. We can't
    guarantee quality health care to many U.S. citizens. We can't guarantee
    health for U.S. businesses who are spending too much on health care
    today. And we can't guarantee that millions of workers won't be deprived
    of their wage increases because they'll have to pay more and more and
    more every year for the same or less health coverage.
        To be sure, a lot is right with the American health care system. Our
    hospitals, doctors and nurses, our technology and research make us the
    envy of the world, and we intend to stay that way. But at the same time,
    there's clearly a lot wrong. Health care costs are draining the Nation's
    coffers and robbing too many Americans of the security they need and
    deserve. Millions of our friends and neighbors have lost their health
    coverage simply because they switched jobs, moved to a different city,
    or got sick. Many of them can't change jobs because someone in their
    family has been sick, and they're locked into the health coverage they
    have or none at all.
        Now we have an historic opportunity to change all that. Next month
    I'll outline a health care plan to Congress that offers hope for all
    Americans who want to work and take responsibility and create
    opportunities for themselves and their children. The plan will be built
    on three guiding principles: security, savings, and simplicity.
        First, it will guarantee all Americans the security of knowing they
    won't lose their health coverage even if they switch jobs, lose a job,
    get sick, have a family member who gets sick, move to a new city, or
    start a small business.
        Second, the plan will generate savings by in-

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    troducing real competition into the health care market. We'll limit the
    growth of expensive premiums and costs that can't be justified, such as
    drugs made in America costing 3 times more here in the United States
    than they do overseas. We'll root out fraud and abuse which now eat up
    to 10 percent of every health care dollar. And we'll reform a
    malpractice system that drives up prices for doctors and patients. And
    we'll make it more rewarding for doctors to practice preventive medicine
    than to perform expensive tests and procedures that aren't necessary.

        Third, the plan will be simpler for consumers and health care
    providers. We spend about 10 cents on the dollar more for administrative
    and paperwork costs than any other nation in the world. That's probably
    why health care takes up more than 14 percent of our income while no
    other country, except Canada, spends over 9 percent, and they're just a
    little over that.

        Only the United States has 1,500 separate health insurance companies
    writing thousands of different policies, requiring millions of people to
    keep up with the paperwork in doctors' offices, in hospitals, in the
    insurance companies themselves. We're going to have one basic insurance
    form instead of thousands. We'll reduce nightmarish paperwork that now
    requires 4 times as many clerical workers to be hired as new health care
    providers, just to keep up with the mountains of redtape.

        Reforming our health care system is not only the best way to reduce
    costs, rein in our Federal deficit, and provide security for our
    citizens, it's also good for our economy. This plan will boost the
    private sector by generating savings for businesses which they can use
    to create jobs and by creating jobs in health care, not for more
    paperwork but to provide new, innovative ways to people to stay healthy
    or be well.

        When we talk about health care reform, we mean giving businesses who
    don't currently provide insurance plenty of time to phase-in coverage
    for their employees. We mean asking those employees to pay something for
    their own health insurance so they'll know that it doesn't come free. We
    mean establishing a system that gives small businesses lower insurance
    rates instead of pricing them out of the market. We mean providing the
    very smallest firms and the lowest wage firms with some modest subsidies
    to help them cover the costs of insuring their workers. And we mean
    allowing the self-employed a 100-percent deduction for their health care
    costs.

        With health care reform, our economy will be more productive; our
    companies will be more competitive; our workers will be more secure in
    their jobs and, therefore, more productive in them; and our families
    will be more confident about their future. If we want to really
    straighten out this economy and live more prosperous lives, we have to
    improve the Nation's health care system.

        And we know something else: The price of doing nothing about health
    care is far too high. Doing nothing means more and more Americans losing
    their coverage. Doing nothing means allowing insurers to dictate prices,
    charging whatever they want to whomever they want. Doing nothing means
    continuing a system in which anonymous bureaucrats peer into every
    hospital and doctors' offices and second-guess medical decisions. Doing
    nothing means no wage increases for millions of workers, not to mention
    the most important thing of all: more fear, anxiety, and insecurity on
    the part of our citizens. And amazingly, doing nothing is the most
    expensive thing of all. It means about 100,000 Americans a month will
    join the nearly 40 million already without health insurance, and we will
    continue to spend much, much more of our income on health care than any
    other people on Earth.

        As we work for reform in the months ahead, we can't let this health
    care issue fall victim to partisan bickering. This is not a Democratic
    challenge, not a Republican challenge, not a liberal or a conservative
    challenge; it's an American challenge we must all face together.

        I am pledged to work with all who have a commitment to change,
    Republicans as well as Democrats in the Congress, with the Governors and
    others throughout the country, with doctors and nurses and hospitals and
    other health care providers, with responsible drug companies who've
    committed to help keep their costs within inflation and are already
    giving critically needed drugs to public health clinics across the
    country.

        These are the kinds of things we need more of. This is a cause in
    which all Americans must enlist, a cause in which special interest must
    put aside a broken system and become a lobby for the American people and
    a lobby for the

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    American future. We've got to roll up our sleeves, make the tough
    decisions now, and get on with this. With your help, I know we can
    succeed.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 11:30 a.m. on August 19 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on August
    21.