[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[May 16, 1994]
[Pages 927-928]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Video Conference Call on Health Care Reform
May 16, 1994

    The President. Hello, Roger.
    Deputy Secretary Roger Altman. Hello, Mr. President. Good afternoon.
    The President. Good afternoon.

[At this point, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Roger Altman discussed 
technological advances in video conferencing and then introduced Norman 
Gott, chairman and chief executive of PictureTel, a company in that 
field which provides health care coverage to all its employees.]

    Norman Gott. Thank you, Roger.
    Good afternoon, Mr. President.
    The President. Good afternoon, Norman.
    Mr. Gott. We welcome you up here on, hopefully, technology that will 
help to carry us into the 21st century.
    The President. It's carrying me through the afternoon. I'm amazed by 
this. [Laughter] I'm trying to figure out how to get it.

[Mr. Gott expressed his support for universal health care coverage 
through the workplace.]

    The President. Well, I appreciate your support. You know, it is 
clear to me, having studied this problem for years and talked to 
literally hundreds of employers, that we're never going to get control 
of costs and have a fully efficient and effective system that is also 
compassionate and humane until we have guaranteed health insurance for 
everybody. We've got to cover everybody. And the simplest and most 
direct way is to do it through the workplace.
    Now, as you know, all the bitter opposition we're getting here in 
Washington is coming from people who say it will cost jobs and it will 
hurt small business. But they overlook the fact that many small 
businesses provide health insurance today at very high rates because 
they don't have any market power. And under our plan, we'd have 
discounts for small businesses, and we'd give them market power. We 
would let them go into buyers co-ops so they would be able to have the 
same sort of muscle that larger companies do.

[[Page 928]]

    And over the long run, unless we do this, we're neither going to be 
a humane country, from a health care point of view, or as productive as 
we ought to be, and we're going to lose jobs. All these serious studies 
of the economy, such as the one done by the bipartisan Congressional 
Budget Office, say that we'll actually create more jobs and we'll help 
the small business sector over the long run as we put this universal 
coverage in.
    So I can't tell you how much I appreciate this because the organized 
groups here in Washington are always complaining about this mandate as 
if it's the end of the world when, in fact, it's just private insurance 
for everybody. It keeps the Government out of it except to require 
people, employers and employees, to be responsible. And I really applaud 
what you said.

[Mr. Gott asked if there was any way business could assist the health 
care reform effort.]

    The President. Absolutely, there is. I think the most important 
thing you can do is to contact as many Members of Congress of both 
parties as possible, describe your business, make it clear that you're a 
business of the future, and make it clear that the American economy in 
the future depends upon providing health care for all of our citizens 
and that the way to do it is through the workplace.
    I think that if the Members of Congress could just see over and over 
and over again all the responsible employers who want to do the right 
thing and who understand that it's good for business and will create 
jobs to solve the health care crisis, I think that will do more than 
anything else to give them the courage to overcome the intense, almost 
unbelievable pressure from the organized groups who are basically trying 
to protect the right of business to walk away from their employees and 
their own responsibility so that the rest of us will pick up the bill 
when those folks get sick.
    I think that if we can just have enough real-life examples like 
yours that represent the future to the Members of Congress, so they can 
feel a higher confidence level in doing this, I believe we can get this 
done. And we can get it done this year. I think it's very, very 
important that we do this this year. This problem's been studied to 
death. There's no point in just taking more time. We ought to move, and 
move now.
    Again, I would urge you to reach out to Members of both parties. 
Tell them, ``Don't play politics with this. Do what's right for America 
and do it this year.'' And tell them that you know it will be good for 
America's jobs. That, I think, is really critical, because you'll have a 
lot of credibility. And you might even set up one of these phone calls 
with congressional leaders. And you would certainly have a big 
impression on them.
    Mr. Gott. We're going to leave that unit in there so that you can 
talk to a lot of leaders like this and not waste a lot of time.
    The President. You'll save us a lot of travel time.
    Mr. Gott. Yes, well, I want you guys to join the 21st century in 
technology on this information highway. And here's your best example.
    The President. You are. This is--the Vice President's always telling 
me about virtual reality. I virtually feel like I'm there in the room 
with you today.
    Mr. Gott. Well, we appreciate very much your taking the time to talk 
to us today about this because we think it's important, and I know you 
do, too. We'll do our part.
    The President. Thank you. Thank you for your support for health 
care. Thank you for helping to take the American economy into the 21st 
century. I want to again urge all of you, just do what you can to 
personally contact the Members of Congress and, again, without regard to 
party. Say this is an American problem. We need an American solution. We 
need to do it in 1994, not later.
    Thank you very much.
    Mr. Gott. Terrific.
    Deputy Secretary Altman. Mr. President, I'm bringing back 535 video 
conferencing-equipped PC's for every Member of Congress so Norman can 
plug into all of them just like this. [Laughter]
    The President. Good for you. Thank you very much. Thanks. That is 
amazing.

Note: The teleconference began at 2:47 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House.