[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[June 11, 1994]
[Pages 1068-1069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
June 11, 1994

    Good morning. For me and for many of you, last week was a time of 
remembrance and rededication. As we marked the 50th anniversary of D-
Day, a grateful nation honored the generation of heroes who fought and 
won World War II and built us 50 years of freedom.
    I had the privilege of representing our country at ceremonies 
honoring all those who liberated Europe. It was an experience I'll never 
forget. And I came home with a renewed sense of commitment to the work 
we must do in our time.
    The generation of heroes whom we honored last week never lost faith 
in the promise of America. They worked their way out of the Great 
Depression, defeated fascism on three continents, and built half a 
century of prosperity for their children and grandchildren. With the 
history they made they proved what a great democracy can accomplish when 
we work together for a great purpose.
    Yet today, too many have lost that faith. After years of deadlock 
and division and drift, too many doubt that our democratic process can 
change our lives for the better. Well, democracy can be imperfect. After 
all, it's run by and it represents human beings. Its workings are often 
untidy, and its pace can be frustratingly slow. But unlike any other 
system of government, it allows the people's wisdom to prevail, and 
ultimately something good and decent gets done.
    This morning I want to tell you about something profoundly important 
we're working to accomplish. For weeks we've been told that health care 
reform is dead, that America will continue to be the only advanced 
country in the world that spends more than anybody else on health care 
and does less with it, leaving tens of millions of our fellow citizens 
without health insurance, tens of millions more with inadequate 
insurance, and even more with the constant risk of losing their 
coverage. But the truth is, in spite of all the naysayers, our Nation is 
closer than ever before to achieving a goal that President Truman set 
after World War II, ``real health care security for every family.''
    Last week, for the first time in history, Congress took several 
giant steps toward a bill that answers the call of history and provides 
guaranteed private insurance for every American. Senator Kennedy's Labor 
and Human Resources Committee approved a bill providing guaranteed 
private insurance for every family. The Senate Finance Committee is 
moving forward under the leadership of Chairman Moynihan, who is also 
committed to achieving coverage for all Americans.
    Meanwhile, other important congressional committees continue their 
work, and soon the House and the Senate will debate and decide on a bill 
that will make our families' anxieties about health care a thing of the 
past.

[[Page 1069]]

    This isn't just about the uninsured, although their numbers are 
growing and nearing 40 million. It's also about the tens of millions of 
Americans, most of them hard-working, middle class people, who live with 
the uncertainty of never knowing whether their health care will be there 
when they need it. After all, they could have a member of their family 
get sick or they could lose their jobs or they could change jobs and 
they couldn't get insurance on the new one. The only way all of our 
people will be secure is when every American knows that whether they 
lose their job, change jobs, move their home, get sick, get injured, or 
just grow old, their health care will be there.
    Others urge half-measures and quick fixes. They say they're 
reforming the health care system, but they fail to provide every 
American with the ironclad guarantee that they'll have private health 
insurance that can never be taken away. Health care reform just isn't 
the real thing unless middle class working people are guaranteed 
coverage, and after at least 50 years of delay, the American people 
deserve the real thing.
    I'll tell you why I'm fighting so hard for this health care reform. 
Every day Hillary and I, the Vice President, people in our 
administration, we all hear about hard-working Americans whose lives are 
being torn apart by uncertainties about their health care. People like 
Jim Bryant, who told the Boston Globe that he works 70 hours a week but 
has no health insurance for his family. He wonders if it's fair that he 
misses his son's soccer games on Saturdays to go to his second job while 
people who are on welfare have health benefits he and his family don't 
have. In a moment of frustration he pointed out to his wife that if they 
broke up she and their sons could get benefits that working families 
like theirs can't afford.
    That's just not right. No one who works should have to go on welfare 
to get health insurance. And everyone on welfare should have the 
opportunity to go to work without losing health care coverage. It's 
families like the Bryants who will get no help at all from half-
measures, quick fixes, and Band-Aid-style reforms. For the sake of these 
hard-working families, let's not leave anyone out. Let's cover everyone. 
Let's get the job done this year.
    In the weeks ahead, you'll hear from special interests who do very 
well in the present system and who prefer the deadlock of political 
systems to the reform of health care. For months, those who do well in 
the present system and those who want for political reasons to beat 
health care reform, have blitzed the American people with mountains of 
false information about our health care plan. They say it means 
Government regulation of the whole system. They say it means taking away 
benefits from Americans. But the truth is what we want is private 
insurance for everyone. We want to keep the private health care delivery 
system that's the best in the world for people who have access to it. We 
want to give a break to small businesses so they can afford health 
insurance that's good. But we think everybody should be covered and 
everyone should take responsibility for doing it.
    Now, if you keep faith with democracy, if you'll make your voice 
heard, we can break gridlock even on this most difficult issue that has 
frustrated Americans for 50 years. And the national interests will 
prevail over narrow interests. I know we can succeed.
    Helen Keller once wrote that ``the world is moved along not only by 
the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny 
pushes of each honest worker.'' Americans from every part of the country 
and every walk of life have called for fundamental health care reform 
this year. The steps that Congress took last week proved that the voice 
of the people is being heard.
    I urge you to tell your elected Representatives that we need to do 
this, do it right, and do it now.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.