[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[July 29, 1995]
[Pages 1173-1174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Radio Address by the President and Hillary Clinton on Medicare
July 29, 1995

    The President. Good morning. This morning I'm speaking to you from 
the Oval Office with the First Lady. And we're joined by families from 
all across our country, grandparents, parents, and children, including 
Hillary's mother and my stepfather. We want to talk with you this 
morning about the respect and dignity we owe to older Americans and the 
security we owe to their families.
    This weekend we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of the passage 
of Medicare. Guaranteed health care for older and disabled Americans is 
now so much a part of our lives that it's easy to forget how growing old 
once meant growing poor in our country. In 1965, over one-third of older 
Americans were poor, and half of them were uninsured.
    I remember because my mother was a nurse-anesthetist, and older 
people without insurance would sometimes come to our house, offering to 
mow our lawn or bringing a bushel of peaches to pay for her services. 
These Americans had worked hard their whole lives, they didn't have any 
health insurance, and they were in danger of losing their health.
    Vice President Gore's father, Senator Al Gore, Sr., was in the 
Senate back in 1965 when he said that this was a disgrace in a country 
such as ours. Senator Gore helped to create Medicare to put an end to 
that disgrace. And since then, Medicare has lifted millions of seniors 
out of poverty and provided insurance for almost every older American.
    Mrs. Clinton. We need to remember that Medicare is not just 
important for older men and women, it is a compact across generations. 
Medicare means that we don't have to choose between doing right by our 
parents and giving our children the opportunities they deserve.
    A friend of ours told me a story about how, before Medicare, her 
mother would take a part of her paycheck each week and put it in an 
envelope to pay for an aging parent's health care bills. That meant the 
family had less money for putting food on the table or sending their 
children to college or saving for their own retirement. That's the way 
it was for families before Medicare and the way it could be again for 
all families, especially those of us with both responsibilities for 
parents and children.
    Parents ought to be able to save for their children's college and 
protect their parents' health, and Medicare means they can. It certainly 
has been there for our family and for the Vice President's.
    You may know that the President and I have both lost parents in the 
last 2\1/2\ years. We've sat in those hospital waiting rooms. We've been 
in those intensive care units. And we've also experienced in the past 
week with the Vice President the joy of having his mother come out of 
the hospital. For all our worries, the one thing we didn't have to worry 
about was a mountain of health care bills. Medicare was there.
    That is the story for millions of Americans, people like Arthur 
Flemming and Genevieve Johnson, who are here with us. Mr. Flemming 
helped start Medicare 30 years ago, and Mrs. Johnson was among the first 
people to benefit from it. Today, both are in their nineties and receive 
Medicare, and both have worked tirelessly to make sure Medicare will be 
there for their grandchildren, too. And I think it's because they know 
what life is like for most older Americans. The median income for women 
over 65 in our country is $8,500 a year.
    The President. To preserve Medicare for all of our grandchildren we 
do have to strengthen the Medicare trust fund, which holds the money we 
all pay in to cover hospital, nursing homes, and home health bills. I've 
been working to reform Medicare since I took office, and frankly, the 
trust fund is in better shape than it was when I did take office. But 
real reform is about making the situation better, not worse. Real reform 
means fixing the trust fund without putting beneficiaries in a fix.

[[Page 1174]]

    I also believe we have to balance the budget. But I know we can do 
that and strengthen the trust fund without rolling back 30 years of 
progress against poverty and fear for older Americans. That's what my 
balanced budget will do. It will eliminate the deficit, secure the 
Medicare trust fund, and still protect older Americans from one penny in 
new Medicare costs. Times are tough enough without forcing families to 
pay more to keep the health care they have right now.
    The congressional majority sees it differently. They are now willing 
to join me in shoring up the trust fund, but they want to do it in a way 
I don't agree with, that goes way too far, because they insist on such a 
huge tax cut that also make older couples pay $5,600 more out of their 
pockets over the next few years. For people who don't have that kind of 
money, the message will be simple: Fend for yourselves. Many people just 
won't be able to do it.
    As I said before, we often take for granted the security that comes 
from Medicare. But according to a new study by the Department of Health 
and Human Services, the congressional majority would push 500,000--a 
half a million--older Americans into poverty by increasing the cost of 
health care. And these cuts would force their families to make choices 
between generations that no family should have to make.
    We do need to protect Medicare from going bankrupt, but we don't 
have to bankrupt older Americans to do it. None of the cuts driving 
families into poverty would go into the trust fund. They would simply 
pay for a huge tax cut for people who don't really need it. That's 
unnecessary, and it's wrong. Medicare is too important to all families 
to become a piggy bank for tax cuts for just a few. It's especially 
important today because so many families are working harder and earning 
the same or less than they did 10 years ago.
    For all Americans, Medicare must remain a source of certainty and 
security. For our parents, but also for our children, I pledge to do my 
part to keep Medicare strong.
    Thanks for listening.

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