    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [October 27, 1993]
    [Pages 1830-1834]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Presenting Proposed Health Care Reform Legislation to the
    Congress
    October 27, 1993

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Senator Mitchell,
    Senator Dole, Congressman Gephardt, Congressman Michel. To all the
    distinguished Members of the Congress from both Houses and both parties
    who are here today, I thank you for your presence and your continuing
    interest. I thank you for giving Hillary and me the opportunity to come
    here to Statuary Hall.
        This has been a remarkable process. I can never remember a time in
    which so many Members of Congress from both parties and both Houses had
    so consistent and abiding commitment to finding an answer to a problem
    that has eluded the country and the Congress for a very long time. I
    want to thank the hundreds, indeed thousands, of people who have worked
    on this process which has led to the bill. I want to thank the literally
    hundreds of Members of Congress who attended the health care university
    recently, an astonishing act of outreach by a bipartisan majority of the
    United States Congress to try to just come to grips with the enormous
    complexity and challenge of this issue.
        I believe the ``Health Security Act,'' which I am here to deliver,
    holds the promise of a new era of security for every American and is an
    important building block in trying to restore the kind of self-
    confidence that our country needs to face the future, to embrace the
    changes of the global economy, and to turn our Nation around. A nation
    which does not guarantee all of its people health care security at a
    time when the average 18-year-old will change jobs eight times in a
    lifetime and when the global economy is emerging in patterns yet to be
    defined can hardly have the confidence it needs to proceed forward. If
    our Nation does that, I believe we will do as we approach the 21st
    century what we have always done: We will find a way to adapt to the
    changes of this time; we will find a way to compete and win; we will
    find a way to make strength out of all of our diversity.
        This legislation, therefore, literally holds the key to a new era
    for our economy, an era in which we can get our health care costs under
    control, free our businesses to compete better in the global economy,
    and make sure that the men and women who show up for work every day are
    more productive because they're more secure and they feel that they can
    do two important jobs at once: be good members of their family, be good
    parents and good children, as

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    well as good workers.
        This is a test for all of us, a test of whether the leaders of this
    country can serve the people who sent us here and can actually take
    action on an issue that, as tough and complex as it is, is still
    absolutely central to moving us forward. And it is a test that I believe
    we can all pass. And so I have today just one simple request: I ask that
    before the Congress finishes its work next year, you pass and I sign a
    bill that will actually guarantee health security to every citizen of
    this great country of ours.
        The plan that we present today, as embodied in this book as well as
    the bill, is very specific, it is very detailed, and it is very
    responsible. And though we will debate many points, and we should debate
    many points, let me just make clear to you the central element of this
    plan that is most important to me: It guarantees every single American a
    comprehensive package of health benefits. And that, to me, is the most
    important thing, a comprehensive package of health care benefits that
    are always there and that can never be taken away. That is the bill I
    want to sign. That is my bottom line. I will not support or sign a bill
    that does not meet that criteria. That is what we owe the American
    people.
        Now, as we enter this debate, which I very much look forward to, I
    ask that we keep some things in mind. First of all, when we debate
    something that the administration recommends or something some of you
    recommend and it seems bewildering in its complexity, I ask that it be
    compared against what we have now, because none of us could devise a
    system more complex, more burdensome, more administratively costly than
    the one we have now. Let us all judge ourselves against, after all, what
    it is we are attempting to change.
        Secondly, I ask that we follow the admonition that Senator Dole laid
    for us: Let us all ask ourselves as clearly as we can, who wins, who
    loses, why is the society better off, and how much does it cost or save?
    And if we know, let us say. And if we don't know, let us frankly admit
    that we may not know the answer to every question.
        We have gotten in a lot of trouble as a nation, I think--and I see
    Senator Domenici, one of our great budget experts, nodding his head--
    pretending that we could know the answer to some things that we don't
    know the answer to. We have tried to be as conservative as we could here
    in making sure that we have not overclaimed for cost savings or
    overestimated how small the cost of things will be. Therefore, I think
    we have, in our plan, put more money in than it will cost to implement
    this plan, but better to be wrong on that side than the other side. We
    have really worked hard here. And I think we must all do that.
        Thirdly, I think we should all say what are the principles that
    animate this debate. For us, the principles are simple. They're the ones
    I outlined in my address to Congress, but let me briefly state them
    again. They are: security, over and above everything; simplicity, the
    system we create must be simpler than the one we have; savings, we
    cannot continue to spend for what we have 40 percent more than any other
    country and much more than that over and above what our major
    competitors, Germany and Japan, spend to cover fewer people; quality, we
    must not ask any American to give up the quality of health care; choice,
    people have to have choice in the private system of health care. Our
    plan would provide more choices to most Americans and fewer choices to
    none. And there must be responsibility. To pretend that we can control
    the costs and take this system where it ought to go without asking more
    Americans to assume more personal responsibility is not realistic. We
    have too many costs in our system that are the direct result of personal
    decisions made by the American people that lead to rampant inflation
    based on personal irresponsibility. And we have to tell the American
    people that and be willing to honestly and forthrightly debate it.
        Now, our plan guarantees comprehensive benefits and focuses on
    keeping people healthy as well as treating them when they're sick by
    providing primary and preventive care. It reduces paperwork by
    simplifying the forms that have to be dealt with by doctors, by
    hospitals, by people with insurance. And that's important. Every one of
    us can agree on at least this: that the paperwork in this system costs
    at least a dime on the dollar more than any of our major competitors
    pay. We must deal with this. That's a dime on a dollar in a $900 billion
    health care system. We can't justify that. It has nothing to do with
    keeping people well or helping them when they are sick. We have to crack
    down on fraud. We know our system today is so complex we waste tens of
    billions of dollars in fraudulent medical expenses that we can change.
    We ought to help small and medium-

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    sized businesses, self-employed people, and family farmers to have
    access to the same market power in holding their costs down that big
    business and Government have today.
        I agree with Senator Dole or whoever it was that said this term
    ``alliance'' sounds foreboding, but an alliance is basically a group of
    small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed people and farmers
    designed to give them the same bargaining power in the health care
    market that only the Government and big business has today. We must do
    that. We cannot expect people to be at that kind of disadvantage,
    especially since many of them are creating most of the new jobs for the
    American economy.
        We should, and we do, protect our cherished right to choose our
    doctors. Indeed, we try to increase choices for most Americans. Most
    workers insured in the workplace have now not very many choices about
    what kind of health care they receive; only about one in three have
    choices. Under our plan, all workers would have more choices in the kind
    of health care they receive without charging their employers more for
    the workers having the option to make that choice.
        We preserve and strengthen Medicare. We give small businesses a
    discount on the cost of insurance. We invest more in medical research
    and high-quality care. We must never sacrifice that. That's something we
    want America to spend more on than any other country. We get something
    for it. It's an important part of our economy and an important part of
    our security. We should continue to do that.
        Our plan rejects broad-based taxes but does ask everyone not paying
    into the system, that is still there for them when they need it, to pay
    in accordance with their ability to pay. Two-thirds of the funds that
    finance this entire system come from asking people who can access the
    system today, who have money but don't pay a nickel for it, to pay their
    fair share. And I think we ought to do that. It's not right for people
    to avoid their responsibility and then access the system that the rest
    of the American people pay for. And they pay too much because too many
    people don't pay anything at all.
        So these are the fundamental elements of our plan, of this bill. But
    above all, it guarantees true health care security. It means if you lose
    your job, you're covered; if you move, you're covered; if you leave your
    job to start a small business, you're covered. It means if you or a
    member of your family gets sick, you're covered, even if it's a life-
    threatening illness. It means if you develop a long-term illness,
    because you will be in broad-based community rating systems, you will
    still be able to work. It means that the disabled community in America,
    full of people, millions of them, who could be in the work force today,
    will now be able to work and contribute and earn money and pay taxes
    because they will be in a health care system that will not burden their
    employers or put their employers at undue risk.
        That's what security means. It means that we will, in other words,
    be able to make the most of the potential of every working American who
    wishes to work during the time they can work. It is a huge, huge
    economic benefit in that sense. Every nation with which we compete has
    achieved this. Only the United States has failed to do so. We are now
    going to be given the chance to do it. And I think we must, and I think
    we will.
        I want to reiterate what I have said so many times. I have no pride
    of authorship, nor do I wish this to be a partisan endeavor or victory.
    We have tried to draw on the best ideas put forth over the last 60 years
    by both Democrats and Republicans. This bill reflects the sense of
    responsibility that President Roosevelt tried to put forward when he
    asked that the Social Security program include health care. It reflects
    the vision of Harry Truman, the first President to put forward a plan
    for national health care reform. It reflects the pragmatic approach that
    President Nixon took in 1972 when he asked all American employers to
    take responsibility for providing health care for their employees. It
    embodies the ideas, the commitment of generations of congressional
    leaders who fought to build a health care system that honors our
    Nation's responsibilities and who have tried to learn, too, how we might
    use the mechanisms of the marketplace and the competition forces that
    have helped us in so many other areas to work in the health care arena.
        This is a uniquely American solution. It builds on the existing
    private sector system. It responds to market forces. It attempts to do
    what I think we should all be asking ourselves whether we're doing: It
    attempts to fix what's wrong and keep what's right. And that ought to be
    our guiding star, all of us, as we enter this debate.
        I think by guaranteeing comprehensive benefits and high quality and
    allowing most people

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    to get their coverage the way they do now, leaving important personal
    decisions about health care where they belong, between patients and
    doctors, we have done what we can to keep what is right. I think by
    asking people who don't pay now to be responsible, by simplifying the
    system, by cracking down on fraud, by making sure we minimize
    regulation, we are taking a long step toward doing what is necessary to
    fix what is wrong, to improve quality and hold down costs.
        All of the alternatives that will be debated, I ask only what I have
    already said: Let us measure ourselves against the present system and
    the cost of doing nothing. Let us honestly compare our ideas with one
    another and ask who wins, who loses, and how much does it cost. And let
    us see whether we are meeting the guiding principles which ought to
    drive this process.
        But when it is over, we must have achieved comprehensive health care
    security for all Americans, or the endeavor will not have been worth the
    effort. That is what we owe the American people. And let me say again,
    the most expensive thing we can do is nothing. The present system we
    have is the most complex, the most bureaucratic, the most mind-boggling
    system imposed on any people on the face of the Earth. The present
    system we have has the highest rate of inflation with the lowest rate of
    return. The present system we have is hemorrhaging, losing 100,000
    people a month permanently from the health insurance system; 2 million
    people every month newly become uninsured, the rest of them get it back.
    They are never secure. The present system we have has an indefinable
    impact on workers in the workplace, wondering what will happen if they
    lose their health insurance. What does that do to their productivity, to
    their self-confidence, to their family life? The present system we have
    is eating up the wage increases that would otherwise flow to millions of
    American workers every year because money has to go to pay more for the
    same health care. The present system we have, I would remind you, my
    fellow Democrats and Republicans, is largely responsible for the impasse
    we had over the last budget and the fights we had.
        Look what we did. We diminished defense as much as we should, and
    some of us are worried about whether we did a little more than we
    should. We froze domestic spending, discretionary spending, for 5 years,
    when all of us know we should be spending more in certain investment
    areas to help us convert from a defense to a domestic economy and put
    people back to work in our cities and our distressed urban areas. We
    froze it. We raised a good bit of taxes. And even though over 99 percent
    of the money came from people at the highest income group, nobody in
    this Congress wanted to raise as much money as we did. Why? Because we
    passed a budget after doing all of that in which Medicaid is going up at
    16 percent a year next year, declining to an increase of 11 percent a
    year in the 5th year; Medicare is going up at 11 percent a year next
    year, declining to 9 percent a year in the 5th year of our budget.
        That's why we did that. We could have had a bipartisan solution,
    lickety-split, giving the American people a plan that would have reduced
    the deficit and increased investment in putting the American people back
    to work if we were not choking on a health care system that is not
    working.
        Now, I don't know about you, but I don't ever want us to go through
    that again. That is not good for the Congress; it is not good for the
    country; it is not good for the public interest. And the most important
    thing is we can't give the American people what they need. They want to
    be rewarded for their work. They want to know if they're asked to go
    back to school, if they're asked to embrace the challenges of expanded
    trade, if they're asked to compete and win in a global marketplace, that
    if they do what they're supposed to do, they'll be rewarded. They want
    to know that they can be good parents and good workers. They want to
    know if they get sick but they're still healthy enough to work, they
    won't have to quit because of the insurance system. They want to know if
    they're disabled physically or if they have had a bout with mental
    illness or they've dealt with any other thing that can be managed, that
    they can still be productive citizens. And the bizarre thing is that we
    could do all this and still have a system that is more efficient and
    wastes less than the one we've got.

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        So I ask you, let's start with this bill and start with this plan
    and give the American people what they deserve: comprehensive, universal
    coverage. That's what we got hired to do, to solve the problems of the
    people and to take this country into the 21st century.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 11:25 a.m. in Statuary Hall
    at the Capitol.