[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 16 (Monday, April 26, 1993)]
[Pages 646-647]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Presenting the American Cancer Society Courage Awards and an 
Exchange With Reporters

 April 22, 1993

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the annual American 
Cancer Society Courage Awards. And the certificate salutes the two 
people I'll present the awards to for personal courage in the battle 
against cancer and for a message of hope and inspiration given to all 
Americans in the fight for life and health.
    We have here to my right Dr. Reginald Ho, the president of the 
American Cancer Society; Stanley Shmichkiss, who is the chairman of the 
board of the Cancer Society; Dr. John Seffrin, the national executive 
vice president and chief staff officer of the Cancer Society.
    The young gentleman to my right is Mr. Jeremy Fleury, who is here 
with his mother, Sharon. And I want to tell you a little about him. He 
is 13, same age as my daughter. He's undergone treatment for non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma way back in 1989, and since then he's been in 
clinical remission. He's a very brave young man, and he's from Clovis, 
New Mexico.
    So I want to give you this. I'll let you hold it so everyone can see 
it.
    And further to the left is Matilda Goodridge, from New York, New 
York, who has been enrolled since 1981 in the Breast Examination Center 
of Harlem, located at the Harlem Hospital, which I have visited. She 
kept annual visits for a mammogram and in 1991 was diagnosed with a 
localized breast cancer. She's undergone surgery and treatment, and 
she's doing quite well. And I want to recognize her.
    Both these folks have had a lot of personal difficulties because of 
the absence of medical coverage and some other economic problems, and 
they're carrying on with a lot of real courage. I also want to 
compliment Ms. Goodridge, as the son of a breast cancer survivor, for 
being enrolled in the breast examination program for over a decade. I 
think that example will help to save the lives of many women in this 
country who will see this ceremony recorded in the news media.

[[Page 647]]

    So I congratulate both of you. Let me give this to you. And thank 
you very much for being here.

[At this point, the President presented the awards.]

    If I might point out, this young man and his mother--if she remains 
unemployed, they can be covered through Medicaid. But if she were to 
take another job, it would be very difficult, because of his treatment 
and past condition, even though he's in remission, for her to get a job 
with health insurance.
    If we can pass reforms which will guarantee coverage to all 
Americans and which will provide a broad-based community base for any 
insurance against risks so that there will be no economic advantage or 
disadvantage to employers for hiring the parents or the people who 
suffer from disease, this country will be a long way down the road 
toward dealing with this problem. And I think that that clearly will be 
a part of the health program that we come out with, something that will 
guarantee coverage to all Americans and will enable people to leave 
their jobs to care for sick family members and then resume employment 
when possible without having the employer suffer economically crippling 
consequences or forcing the people to choose between staying unemployed 
to get Government health care or taking a job and losing health 
coverage.

Health Care Reform

    Q. Mr. President, have you decided on a way to finance health care 
reform? I mean, you're moving toward a deadline now. Have you made any 
decisions?
    The President. We're moving toward a deadline, and we'll have the 
details for you. I've already told--those things will be in the program. 
Whatever options we decide, we'll do that.
    Q. When do you think you'll make your mind up?
    The President. Well, we're still well within our deadline. I think 
that--because of my father-in-law's illness my wife was out of pocket 
for about 3 weeks, and so we're going to be pushed back a little bit off 
the 100 days. But we're working very hard. I spent many, many hours on 
this myself and, indeed, this afternoon will be spending another 2\1/2\ 
hours on it. So I think we're pretty well on schedule.

Bosnia

    Q.----Elie Wiesel's comments about Bosnia this morning, sir, as a 
challenge to you personally?
    The President. I think it was a challenge to all of--to the United 
States and to me and to the West to take further initiatives in Bosnia. 
And I accepted it as such.
    I was eager to have a few moments to speak with Elie Wiesel after 
the ceremony. We went back into a holding room, and I introduced him to 
my wife and my daughter, who wanted very much to meet him. And then we 
sat and talked for a while. We may talk again. But I welcomed his 
remarks this morning.

Note: The President spoke at 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.