    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [June 5, 1996]
    [Pages 861-862]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Health Care Legislation and an Exchange With Reporters
    June 5, 1996

        The President. Good afternoon. Let me say that I'm looking forward
    to this opportunity to meet with the House Democratic caucus to talk
    about the work that we have ahead of us. But before I do, I would like
    to make one particular point. Of all the issues before us, I would very
    much like to see the Congress take up and pass a good, clean version of
    the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill in the next few days.
        Senator Dole has said that he will be leaving the Senate soon, and I
    respect that decision. But this is one issue that he and I agree on. He
    very much wants this bill to pass in a good form that I can sign. And I
    just want to say to him and to all of you that I'm prepared to do
    whatever it takes in the next few days to meet with him, do whatever I
    can, and meet with other Republicans to try to get the Kennedy-Kassebaum
    bill passed before he leaves the Senate. I think that is something we
    ought to do for the American people. I know it would mean a lot to him.
    It would certainly mean a lot to me. And I'm very hopeful that we can
    prevail in getting that done.

    Medicare

        Q. Mr. President, the Medicare trustees are reporting today that
    there was one less year of solvency than originally expected. You have
    said in the past this should be put off until after the election. Do you
    still feel it should be put off?

    [[Page 862]]

        The President. No, no, no. No, I haven't said--I'm sorry. Our plan--
    and by the way, the savings that have been agreed on already by the
    Republicans and the Democrats in the balanced budget negotiations would
    put another decade on the Medicare Trust Fund. And I think we ought to
    do that right away. I have always felt that way. The plan that I
    detailed last year included Medicare reductions of $270 billion, $170
    billion more than the trust fund--the trustees said was necessary to go
    into the trust fund to stabilize it.
        But the differences in our numbers now are not that dramatic, and
    the amount that we have agreed on in common would add--would take it out
    to 10 years, and I think we ought to do that now. I've always said we
    should go on and pass the right kind of balanced budget and do that. We
    can do that now with no trouble. We have agreed on those things.
    Providers know they're coming. Everybody understands how they would be
    managed. And I think we ought to do that. We should not wait.
        Q. [Inaudible]--you all can get together on those. Is that the
    problem?
        The President. What?
        Q. [Inaudible]
        The President. Well, yes. The problems are, I think, far more than
    the money involved, is the structure of Medicare. I don't favor breaking
    the structure of Medicare. I think putting the medical savings account
    for Medicare payments in would be a particularly bad idea. You know,
    Medicare has the lowest administrative cost of any health insurance plan
    in America, private or public. It has done a basically good job. There
    are more seniors now on the plan than ever before. We have to deal with
    the population problems that exist now and the ones that are going to
    exist in the future.
        But we have the ability right now to put 10 years into the life of
    the Medicare Trust Fund, and we ought to just do it. We ought to just go
    on and do that. We can do that with no problem, and we can do it in the
    context of a balanced budget plan.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:50 p.m. at the Longworth House Office
    Building on Capitol Hill prior to a meeting with the House Democratic
    caucus. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
    these remarks.