    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [March 26, 1997]
    [Pages 352-354]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in
    the Health Care Industry
    March 26, 1997

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary Shalala, Acting Secretary
    Metzler. Thank you both for the work you've done on this. I thank the
    Commission members for their willingness to serve, those who are here
    and a few who could not be here with us today. And I thank all of you
    here in this audience for your interest in this profoundly important
    matter.
        The Advisory Commission that I announced today will help to chart
    our way through a time of profound change in health care. Their task
    will be focused and urgent: to find ways to ensure quality and to ensure
    that the rights of consumers in health care are protected.
        Since I took office, we have been committed to improving our health
    care system, to making it more affordable, more accessible, while
    preserving its high quality. You have heard Secretary Shalala mention
    some of the things we have done together. We've worked with States to
    expand Medicaid to more than 2 million Americans who previously had no
    insurance. We reached across party lines to enact the Kassebaum-Kennedy
    law that provides that working families will not lose their insurance
    when they change jobs, increased the health care tax deduction for 3
    million self-employed Americans. And now in our budget plan, we have
    funds sufficiently targeted to extend coverage to as many as half of our
    10 million American children who still don't have medical coverage.
        We've worked to constrain costs. Just yesterday, I announced a new
    effort to combat the multibillion dollar problem of fraud and abuse in
    Medicare and Medicaid. Our balanced budget proposal also strengthens
    Medicare through savings and overdue structural reforms.
        Of course, we're not alone in this. The private sector has found
    ways to rein in costs, sometimes dramatically. And in many cases,
    changes in the health care delivery system have, frankly, also improved
    its quality. For example, the growing recognition of the value of
    preventive care, such as mammography screening, is saving and extending
    lives and the quality of life. This is all very encouraging. Step by
    step we have been working to expand access to health care, and today we
    take the next step.
        In this time of transition, many Americans worry that lower costs
    mean lower quality and less attention to their rights. On balance,
    however, managed health care plans, HMO's, PPO's, and others, give
    patients good care and greater choice at lower cost. Still, we must make
    sure that these changes do not keep health professionals from offering
    the best and the most medically appropriate services to their patients.
    Managed care managed well can be the best deal for our families. Whether
    they have traditional health care or managed care, none of our people
    should ever have inferior care.
        I am proud that the Medicare and Medicaid programs have taken the
    lead in responding to the quality concerns of both patients and health
    care providers, as Secretary Shalala has just described. But we're
    learning the defining, measuring, and enforcing quality is far from a
    simple task. There are many complicated issues. They

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    require thoughtful study. And not surprisingly, there are many areas
    where broad-based consensus on how best to proceed does not yet exist.
        That is why I decided late last year to establish the Advisory
    Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care
    Industry. Today I am happy to introduce the members of that Commission
    to the American people. They are a highly distinguished, broad-based,
    and diverse group. They represent consumers, business, labor, health
    care providers, insurers, managed care plans, State and local
    governments, health care quality experts. Their specialties are wide-
    ranging, including care for children, the elderly, women, people with
    disabilities, mental illness, or AIDS. This Commission includes some of
    the best health care policy minds in our Nation and a lot of people with
    hands-on experience. Its task will be as challenging as it is critical.
        Today, to assure that they get busy right away, I am charging the
    Commission to develop a consumer bill of rights so that health care
    patients get the information and care they need when they need it. Let's
    assure that patients and their families--first, that the health care
    professionals who are treating them are free to provide the best medical
    advice available; second, that their providers are not subject to
    inappropriate financial incentives to limit care; third, that our
    sickest and most vulnerable patients, frequently the elderly and people
    with disabilities, are receiving the best medical care for their unique
    needs; fourth, that consumers have access to simple and fair procedures
    for resolving health care coverage disputes with plans; fifth, and
    perhaps most important, that consumers have basic information about
    their rights and responsibilities, about the plans--the benefits the
    plans offer, about how to access the health care they need, and about
    the quality of their providers and their health care plans.
        I'm delighted that the Secretary of Health and Human Services and
    the Secretary of Labor will take on the task of being the Commission's
    Cochairs. I look forward to reviewing their first report at the end of
    the year and their final report next March.
        The need for this Commission is real. It is urgent. It will give us
    a roadmap to help us make our way through the time of rapid change we
    now see in our health care system. There are few people in the Nation
    better suited to the task than the members of this Commission. And
    again, let me say, I want to thank them for their commitment to serve.
        And to all the rest of you let me say, one of the things, one of the
    many things I have learned in the last 4 years as President is that a
    distinguished commission, broadly based with a clear mandate, can make a
    profound positive difference for our country. In the health care related
    areas, I ask you to think of only two. Think of the work done by the
    Gulf War Commission and what we now know that we did not know when they
    started to meet and work. Think of the remarkable work done by the
    Commission that dealt with those who were exposed to human radiation
    experiments just a few decades ago here and the work that they have
    done. There is a peculiar way in which the citizens of the United
    States, when brought together around a clear mandate, interfacing with
    their Government and with the private sector, can do more than either
    the Government or the private sector could do alone.
        And so again, let me say, I'm very hopeful about this Commission. I
    look forward to their progress on the consumer's bill of rights. I look
    forward to all the work that they do. And I ask you to join me in
    thanking them for their willingness to serve.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:32 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Acting Secretary of Labor Cynthia
    Metzler.

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