[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[March 19, 1994]
[Pages 487-488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
March 19, 1994

    Good morning. Last week I saw American democracy at its best at an 
old-fashioned townhall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire. We were in the 
Elm Street Junior High School, and people were asking me questions about 
all kinds of issues but most of them about health care reform. And then 
when the town meeting was over, a woman came up to me and showed me why 
it's so important for so many Americans that we fix what's wrong with 
our health insurance system. She gave me a photograph of her 7-year-old 
son whom she loves very much. She told me he's had serious health 
problems, and now she's afraid that he'll never be able to get any 
health insurance because he has what insurance companies call a 
preexisting condition.
    Everywhere I go, families come up and tell me we're got to do 
something about health care, and they're right. Here are the facts: Even 
if you have health insurance today, you can lose it tomorrow. The 
terrible truth is that 2 million Americans a month lose their health 
insurance, 58 million Americans find themselves without insurance at 
some point during the year, and about 100,000 Americans a month lose 
their health insurance for good.
    The fine print in your insurance policy can cost you your coverage. 
Eighty-one million Americans have those preexisting conditions, just 
like the little boy in Nashua, that insurance companies can use to raise 
rates or deny coverage and that as a practical matter prevent many, many 
people from changing jobs because they know they'll lose their coverage. 
And three out of four insurance policies--that covers 133 million 
Americans--have lifetime limits that cut off your benefits when you need 
them most. In other words, chances are your insurance plan is great 
unless you get really sick.
    Too many of you who do have insurance are paying more, getting less; 
your choices are more limited every year; your worries are increased, 
worries about losing the right to choose your doctor, increasing copays 
and deductibles, or losing insurance altogether. If we don't do 
something, we face a future of less choice, lower quality care, and 
larger bills. That's why we've got to build on what works and fix what's 
wrong with our health care system. And when you come down to it, America 
faces three choices: Government insurance for everybody, no guarantee of 
coverage for anybody, or guaranteed private insurance for everybody.
    Everywhere I go people tell me they support the idea that is at the 
core of our health reform plan: guaranteed private insurance for 
everybody, insurance that can never be taken away. Here's how our health 
reform plan works. First, we'll guarantee every American private health 
insurance with a comprehensive package of benefits that can never be 
taken away. Everyone will get a health security card that will guarantee 
these benefits, as good as America's biggest companies offer and as good 
as your Members of Congress and your President get. Your benefits will 
include prescription drugs and prevention care, things that often aren't 
covered today. It's common sense to pay to keep people healthy, not just 
treat them after they get sick and when care is more expensive.
    Second, you'll have choices. That's the American way. You'll have 
the right to choose your own doctor and your own health care plan. 
You'll make that choice--you'll make it, not your boss and not your 
insurance company. We trust you to make the best choices to improve the 
quality of your health care.
    Third, we're going to crack down on abuses in insurance practices. 
No more dropping coverage or cutting benefits, no more raising rates 
just because you or someone in your family has been sick, no more using 
lifetime limits to cut off your benefits, and no more charging older 
people more than younger people. These are unfair practices, and we'll 
make them illegal.

[[Page 488]]

We'll make sure you can get affordable insurance you can depend on.
    Fourth, and this is important, we'll preserve and strengthen 
Medicare. Older Americans must be able to count on Medicare and to keep 
their doctors. We also want to cover prescription drugs under Medicare 
and to give people of all ages new choices for long-term care at home or 
in their community. There are so many people with disabilities, so many 
Americans who are in their elderly years who do not need 
institutionalized care but who can't get anything less expensive and 
more helpful because it's not covered today.
    Finally, we want your health benefits to be guaranteed at work. Most 
jobs come with health benefits, and all jobs should. Over two-thirds of 
the small businesses in this country provide health insurance to their 
employees. But 8 of 10 Americans who have no insurance are in working 
families. These Americans deserve better. And our health reform plan 
will guarantee health benefits at work. Small businesses will get these 
health insurance premiums at a discount. And we in the Government will 
help to cover the unemployed.
    The defenders of the status quo are trying to confuse this issue by 
making it sound complicated. Well, the present system is complicated, 
and so there are a lot of details to deal with. But the basic principles 
of health reform are really pretty simple. You'll get a health security 
card; you'll pick any doctor you want; you'll fill out one simple form 
when you need care; you'll know exactly what's covered; and you'll have 
peace of mind for a change, because your health security and that of 
your family can never be taken away.
    A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal explained our health reform 
to some citizens of York, Pennsylvania, without telling them whose plan 
it is. The great majority of that group strongly supported our health 
reform principles over all the competing plans. And the headline in the 
Wall Street Journal reads: ``Many Don't Realize It's Clinton's Plan They 
Like.''
    Next week and in the months ahead, I'm going to tell people all 
across America about our health reform plan and what it really means: 
guaranteed private insurance, a choice of doctors and health plans, 
outlawing unfair insurance practices, preserving Medicare, guaranteeing 
health benefits at work. It's that simple.
    I want to cut through the complexity, the confusion, and downright 
distortions. This issue should be decided by informed citizens, not by 
special interests spending millions of dollars to prevent progress and 
to promote their own narrow interest.
    Let's face the facts, debate our choices, and make an historic 
decision to build on what's best and fix what's worst in our health care 
system. That's democracy at its best, just like the old-fashioned 
American town meeting I attended in New Hampshire last week. And the 
lesson of history is that when the American people have the information 
they need, they do make the right decision.
    Thanks for listening.

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