[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 12 (Monday, March 28, 1994)]
[Pages 587-595]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks in a Health Care Forum in Deerfield Beach
March 21, 1994
The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for that sign back there. Can you hear me in the back? Good.
Everybody sit down and relax now.
Hillary and I are delighted to be back here at Century Village. We
liked it the first time; we like it better this time.
I want to thank Larry Smedley for that introduction; Joanne Pepper
for her support of health care; your fine, fine Congressman Harry
Johnston for his leadership and support of our efforts in Congress; and
my good friend Governor Lawton Chiles for his kind remarks and his
strong leadership. I also want to note the presence here in the audience
today of Congressman Peter Deutsch and Congressman Alcee Hastings; a
host of State officials, including your Lieutenant Governor Buddy
MacKay, Attorney General Bob Butterworth, and many others, legislators
and other State officials. I want to thank the mayor, Mayor Albert
Capellini, for giving me a cap. If I put it on in a few minutes, I'll be
just like most of you, protecting myself from the sun. I want to thank
Mr. and Mrs. Levy for having us here at Century Village and recognize my
good friends Michael and Kitty Dukakis who are here with us today. Thank
you for being here.
Ladies and gentleman, 2 years ago Hillary and I came here when I was
running for President. We sought the support of the people of Broward
County and south Florida and all of this State. We did extremely well
here on Super Tuesday, much better than anyone predicted that we would.
And we nearly carried this heavily Republican State in November, and I
haven't given up on it for next time.
I believe it happened because Americans were sick and tired of their
politics and their headlines being dominated every day by distraction,
by division, by destruction. I said that I wanted to get away from
distraction and focus the American people on the real problems that we
face and our real opportunities, that I wanted to go beyond division to
bring our people back together again
[[Page 588]]
across the lines of race and age and region and income and party, and
that I was tired of destruction. I thought it was time we started
building again. Americans are real good when we work on building things
and getting together and moving forward. We're absolutely unstoppable.
Even though I'm kind of a mediocre golfer and not a very good
baseball player at all, I'm glad I'm here in Florida for spring
training, because while the baseball players are working on their
swings, I came to tell you that I'm still in Washington going to bat for
you, and I will every day I am the President of the United States.
You heard the Congressman mention a little of this, but I want to
take just a minute to give you a progress report. When I took office, we
had seen the 4 slowest years of economic growth since the Great
Depression, almost no job growth. People said our deficit was going to
be over $300 billion a year. It is now commonly agreed that the first
year of this administration was the most productive in a generation: 2.1
million new jobs in 13 months; the highest growth rate in 10 years in
the fourth quarter of last year; dramatic increases in sales of cars and
homes; an economic program that led to lower interest rates and higher
investments and more jobs and opportunity.
We have done something for your grandchildren and your children.
We've reformed the college loan program to lower the interest rates and
make the repayment terms better. We passed the national service program
that this year will provide 20,000 young Americans and 2 years from now
100,000 young Americans a chance to earn their way through college by
serving their communities at the grassroots level to make our streets
safer, our people healthier, our people smarter and stronger. We finally
passed the family leave bill after 7 years of trying to make sure that
people don't lose their jobs if they have to take time off from work
when a baby's born or a parent is sick and needs the help of a child.
And after 7 years we passed the Brady bill, to begin the work of making
our streets safer.
This year the Congress is up there right now working on a
comprehensive crime bill to put another 100,000 police officers on the
street, to take automatic weapons and semiautomatic weapons off the
street, to provide alternative punishment to young people and drug
treatment for people who need it, and a ``three strikes and you're out''
law so we don't parole people who are serious dangers to society.
They're working on a welfare reform law to make welfare a second
chance not a way of life. They're working on a campaign finance reform
law that Governor Chiles worked his heart out on as a Senator. We're
finally going to get it this year. And most important, we are working on
doing something that started 60 years ago, finally, finally providing
health care security for all Americans that can never be taken away.
Many of you in this audience remember when Franklin Roosevelt led
the struggle to create Social Security. You were there when John Kennedy
and Lyndon Johnson fought to create Medicare, a solemn pact with our
senior citizens. Many of you also remember, I hope, that Franklin
Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, and yes,
even President Nixon all tried and failed in the face of special
interest opposition to guarantee health security for all Americans. But
we can do it this year, and we must.
There are those who say there is no health care crisis. Well, as
always happens when we get up to the brink on health reform, inflation
has dropped a little in the cost of health care. That's one thing our
health care reform has already done, brought the rising cost of health
care into the point where it's rising more slowly. But you let them kill
it this time, and it'll go right back to the way it was for the last 12
years, going up at 2 and 3 times the rate of inflation.
Even now, 2 million Americans lose their health insurance every
month, 100,000 of them for good, forever. Fifty-eight million Americans
are without health insurance at some time during every year in a country
of 255 million. Eighty-one million Americans have a preexisting
condition in their family so that they can never change the job they
have because they couldn't get new insurance, or they have to pay higher
rates for the insurance they have, or they can't get insurance at all.
And 133 million Americans,
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a majority of us, have lifetime limits on our health coverage so that
when we need it the most, we can run out of health insurance.
Now, I believe that qualifies as a crisis. I also know that
everybody in this country who is still working for a living, who does
not work for the Federal Government or a very big and completely secure
corporation, can lose their health insurance even if they've got it. I
also know that because of the cost of health care going up at 2 and 3
times the rate of the inflation, there are other plans in the Congress
that seek to cut Medicare or cut Medicaid increases without doing one
thing to try to help our senior citizens and without proposing a
comprehensive plan that guarantees you that Medicare services will not
be cut. I am here to tell you that we're not going to mess up what's
right about American health care. Medicare works. Our doctors, our
nurses, our hospitals, our medical research works, and we're going to
keep them intact and improve our support for them. That's what we ought
to do.
My fellow Americans, if we want everybody in this country to have
health care, we've only got three choices: We can guarantee coverage
through the workplace through private insurance; we can pass a tax and
cover everyone; or we can decide what a lot of the special interest
groups and the Congress, people in the Congress hope we'll decide, which
is one more time, we just can't figure out how to do it.
Every other advanced country with which we are competing for the
future has figured out how to give all their people health care
security. We have not been able to figure out how to do it. You know
why? It's because the people who are making a killing on the financing
of the system don't want us to figure it out. I say, give it to the
people.
I want to tell you what I think we should do: We ought to have
guaranteed private insurance; we ought to keep the choice of doctors and
health care plans in the hands of consumers, people who are actually
having to deal with the care, not their employers or the insurance
companies; we ought to outlaw insurance abuses like charging older
people more than younger people for their insurance or eliminating
people with preexisting conditions; we ought to guarantee those health
benefits at work; and we ought to protect Medicare and improve it.
First, I believe that guaranteed health coverage is important
because if you don't do it, you're never going to bring costs under
control, and all the rest of us will be suffering from medical inflation
from now until Kingdom come. And a lot of you are going to deal with the
fact that your children and grandchildren are facing bankruptcy because
they don't have the kind of security you have under Medicare.
I also believe the benefits package has to be a good one. If it
doesn't include primary and preventive care, you will have children who
are sicker than they ought to be; you'll have women who ought to have
access to mammographies and men who ought to have cholesterol tests and
things of that kind that you won't have. This is very important. And
people have got to know that this is going to be there and can never be
taken away.
The second thing--I want to be very clear on this--the second thing
that our plan does is to preserve, indeed to expand, the right of the
American people to choose their doctor or their health care plan. Now,
if you're on Medicare, you can choose your doctor. But slightly more
than half the people in the country who are insured at work already
today have lost their right to choose their health care plan and their
doctor. They don't have it today. And if we don't do anything, the
rising cost of medical care will force more and more employers to take
from their employees the right to choose their doctor or their health
care plan.
Under our system, every American in the work force will get three
choices: They can choose their doctor individually; they can choose a
given health care plan; or they can choose another plan. They'll have at
least three choices. And if they don't like the choice they made, every
year they get to make another one. That's the way we ought to do it.
That will guarantee the highest quality. It will protect the interest of
our doctors and nurses. It will be the right thing to do.
The third thing we've got to do is stop some of these insurance
company abuses. We have got to stop people from dropping their insured
people. We've got to stop people from cutting benefits to the bone. We
can't
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have people with their rates going up just because they get sick. After
all, you have insurance because you might get sick. So when you get
sick, which is the reason you bought the insurance in the first place,
should you have to have higher rates? Of course not. We shouldn't have
lifetime limits. Insurance ought to mean what it used to mean back when
it was started by Blue Cross during the Depression: Pay a fair price for
security, and when you're sick, your health care benefits are there for
you. That's what insurance used to mean, and it can mean that again.
Now, I think the easiest way to do this is just to expand coverage
at the workplace. Why? Because 8 out of 10 Americans who have no
insurance are working or are in working families. And 9 out of 10
Americans who have private insurance get it at the workplace. So the
simplest way is to say that employers and employees who aren't covered
should purchase insurance and to provide discounts for small businesses
who can't afford it otherwise. That is the simplest way to do it.
The Government should provide the discounts for the small business
and cover the unemployed. This approach builds on what works. It's easy,
it's simple, it will make sure that everyone is covered.
Why are some people fighting it? They say it's bad for small
business. Let me tell you something folks, 70 percent of the small
business people in this country cover their employees. What about them?
They're at an unfair competitive disadvantage to those people in the
same business they're in who don't cover their employees. And I'll tell
you something else, I meet small business person after small business
person who says, ``I'm embarrassed that every year I have to raise the
copay and the deductible because my rates are 35 or 40 percent more
expensive than the people in the Government are paying or the people
from big business are paying.'' We are going to change that. That's what
Governor Chiles has tried to do here in Florida; that's what we're going
to do for America.
And let me say finally that no health care reform can pass any true
test unless it is good for older Americans. Dr. Arthur Flemming, a
former U.S. Commissioner of Aging and a fighter for older Americans in
the tradition of Claude Pepper, has called my proposal, and I quote,
``The best thing for older Americans since Medicare.'' That's why so
many senior groups have said that our approach is the best option for
senior citizens and why I was so proud that Larry Smedley of the
National Council of Senior Citizens would come here today to endorse our
efforts and give you all those caps to keep you from expiring in this
heat.
Under our approach, if you get Medicare, you keep it. Your choice of
doctor is protected. I know that's important, because every older
American deserves the security of quality health care. But under our
approach you get more. I want to expand benefits. We want to have
coverage for prescription drugs which costs older Americans more than
anything today.
Since I started running for President, the number one complaint I
have heard from people who are on Medicare is that they are not poor
enough to be on Medicaid; they don't want to be that poor, but they are
not rich enough to pay their outrageous drug bills. We want to do
something about it, and that's why our plan covers prescription medicine
for senior citizens.
We also begin to provide coverage for long-term care where you want
it, at home or in your community. I want to thank the wonderful ``We
Care'' volunteers for greeting us today and for walking Hillary and me
in here. I understand they help many of you get medicine or get a little
bit of help to stay at home. But not everybody is lucky enough to have a
``We Care.'' Believe me, I know. I meet people who don't every week.
That's why we need to make a start in helping people to afford care
where they prefer it, in their homes or in communities like this one.
It's not right to force people into nursing homes when they could do
just fine at home if they had a little help from their friends.
Let me also say that I know we can strengthen Medicare and make some
savings in the Medicare program, but only--listen to me--only if we
cover everybody and if everyone has medical inflation go down. Under our
plan we still expect Medicare spending to go up at twice the rate of
inflation, not 3 times the rate of inflation, which is what's going to
happen if we don't do
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something to change. Medicare goes up at 3 times the rate of inflation,
your premiums under Medicare go up more for the same health care, under
our plan, less inflation, and we use the savings for prescription drugs
and for health care at home or in the community. It is a good deal for
the senior citizens of America.
Let me make one other point. We must also invest more and more, not
less and less, in medical research into all kinds of problems but
especially one which I know concerns many of you in this audience today
and that's Alzheimer's disease and the new drug therapies to treat
Alzheimer's, into things which cause cancer and to the causes of
osteoporosis, into what we can do to prevent heart disease. America
leads the world in cutting-edge research. And under our plan we actually
increase the funds going to medical research.
The opponents of our plan have tried to confuse the issue by making
it seem complicated. They ignore the fact that the system we have today
is the most complicated on the face of the Earth. The principles of our
plan are simple: Guarantee private insurance to every American; let you
choose your doctor and your health plan; outlaw insurance company
abuses; guarantee health benefits at work for everyone who works;
preserve and strengthen Medicare for older Americans by adding the
prescription drugs and long-term care benefits. That's our approach, and
that's our opportunities.
But let me say this, there are a lot of people who are making money
out of this system today who don't want it to change, even though we can
change it and improve, not weaken, health care. One group of health
insurers has already spent 14 million on health care ads to scare you
about the cause of health care reform.
And what are the special interests saying? Led by the extreme right
of the Republican Party, they are warning of a grim future. I say that
because we do have some good Republicans who want health care reform,
and we hope they'll be at least free to vote with us in the Congress as
we work toward it. That's a message to their leaders.
These guys that--no kidding, they're up there saying all over again,
they say, this is socialized medicine; this is rationing. This is
private health insurance. This is what every other economy with an
advanced standard of living in the world has done but the United States;
that's what it is. It's the same old thing they said when Roosevelt
tried to do health care reform, when Kennedy fought for Medicare.
Listen to this, when Kennedy fought for Medicare back in 1962, a
movie actor in California who later became the Governor of his State and
the leader of our country--listen to this--urged listeners to oppose
Medicare. He said, ``If you don't do this, one of these days you and I
are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our
children's children what it was once like in America when men were
free.''
Now, to his credit, by the time he became President, Mr. Reagan
didn't try to totally dismantle the Medicare system. But they're using
the same rhetoric today. Once we've put it in, they won't try to take it
out. They'll try to take credit for it just like they do with Social
Security and everything else.
Make no mistake about it, the guardians of gridlock, the people who
liked our national politics when it was about distraction, division, and
destruction, are doing everything they can to stop health care reform.
If you will help me, it will be good for your health because we won't
let them, if we stay together.
My fellow Americans, I cannot outspend the opponents of health care
reform. They have more money than I can possibly raise, especially if
I'm working for you every day. But I can fight, and you can fight with
me. And we can keep working, and we can support Congressmen like your
Congressman who believe that the time has long since passed when America
should be able to continue making excuses for no prescription drugs, no
long-term care in the home or in the community, and not even providing
decent, basic coverage to the working families of this country. We can
do better, and with your help, we will.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.
[At this point, Hillary Clinton spoke about the personal dimensions of
the health care reform battle and then asked for questions.]
[[Page 592]]
Q. [Inaudible]--about the 28 million veterans in this--what about--
can you hear me?
Hillary Clinton. Let me repeat this gentleman's question. His
question is, what about the 28 million veterans?
Well, the President's still visiting. Let me say that the
President's health care reform has been endorsed by all of the major
veterans' service organizations because it is the only one that tries to
preserve and strengthen the veterans health system. And there's a very
specific way we offer to do that. Those of you who are veterans, and I
imagine there are many of you in this crowd--if you are like my father
was, that was one of the most important parts of your life. And he never
could understand as he got older why he could not take his Medicare and
go to a VA hospital, as he chose to do so. And we've heard that from
many veterans.
Under the President's health care reform plan, if you're a veteran
with Medicare or Medigap or other insurance, you can use the VA system.
You will no longer be locked out of the system that is there for
veterans.
Now, veterans with service-connected disabilities and low-income
veterans will always retain their preference, because we have to take
care of them first. But there are many facilities around our country
that can accommodate millions of our veterans who can bring their
Medicare and insurance dollars. So we are going to take care of our
veterans.
Thank you.
Q. Mrs. Clinton, if this program is put into effect, this reformed
health plan, will the Congressmen and Senators assume the same payments
as we do?
Mrs. Clinton. Yes, and the President, too. We are going to have one
health care system for everybody, including Congress and the President.
Q. I'm president of the Florida Nurses Association. And you have
made it clear that you will veto any health care reform bill that does
not guarantee coverage for all Americans. Will you make a commitment to
veto any bill that doesn't also include tough and effective cost
controls? And could you comment on the role of advanced-practice nurses
in the health care reform?
The President. She said that--this lady is from the nurses
association here in Florida. Give her a hand. [Applause] And the
American Nurses Association have been among the strongest supporters of
our plan. I appreciate that. She said I said that I would veto any bill
that didn't provide universal coverage; would I also veto a bill that
didn't have cost controls? And would I comment on the role of advanced
practice nursing?
Let me answer the second question first. We have achieved so much
support among nurses in part because our plan permits the widest
possible use of nurses to do things that they are properly trained to do
anywhere in the country. And secondly, it's not as easy to say yes or no
on that. I think there have to be cost controls in the plan. If there
aren't some guarantees of controlling costs, we won't be able to prove
to the Congressional Budget Office how much the plan costs, and we won't
be able to pass it. So as a practical matter, no plan will pass and come
to my desk unless there are clear, disciplined measures to make sure
that costs are held down. It can't happen. But I don't want to get into
a fight about what kinds of measures we'll accept or not accept.
Q. I want you to know that we love you. And the reason we love you
is because you've shown by words and more important by deeds that you
love us, too.
The President. Thank you.
Q. I have two questions. Why do we need those parasites known as the
insurance business? And I have one more question, and the other question
is, can we end up with 50 alliances instead of say, 5,000? If you want
real competition, why not one alliance or two for the more populous
States? That should be the real competition, because we'll show the
industry where we come from.
The President. Let me answer the insurance question, and I'll let
Hillary answer the alliance question. Okay? We'll split it up, because a
lot of you have single-payer signs up, and I want to talk abut that.
There are basically, obviously, two ways to get universal coverage.
You can do it through a single-payer system, or you can do it through an
employer-employee shared cost system for private insurance.
Here is why I think our plan is better and why I wouldn't eliminate
all the insurance companies. First of all, I feel compelled to
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tell you, sir, that there are some insurance companies, believe it or
not, who have not contributed to that television ad campaign against our
plan, because they do favor universal control--I mean, universal
coverage for all Americans.
Now, here's why I think it's--our plan is better. First of all, I
think that it's clear that some of the insurance companies, particularly
bigger ones, do a good job of trying to manage the health care system
and manage costs. And if you have enough people in a big insurance pool,
they can get their administrative costs down almost as low as you have
in the Medicare program if the pools are big enough. That's the second
question you asked. And they really have acquired quite a lot of
expertise.
Secondly, as a practical matter, there are a lot of awfully good
people who are working in this industry. And I don't think we should
throw them all out of work. The problem is that in our system you've got
1,500 separate companies writing thousands of different policies, so you
have to hire all these people to figure out who's not covered. If we had
a rational private insurance system, the insurance companies can make a
valuable contribution without bankrupting the system.
I also believe, as a practical matter, based on--we have Members of
Congress here who may have a different opinion, but my reading of the
Congress is that we have a better chance to pass guaranteed private
insurance than the single-payer system, because I think it's simpler,
easier, and less disruptive. But I also think, on the merits, it's the
right thing to do.
Now, let me let Hillary answer the question about the alliances.
Mrs. Clinton. Well, I think that if you have the States making the
decisions, some States will only have one; some will only have two; some
of the larger ones may need more than two. But it's not going to be
thousands. It will only be probably 100 or 120 at the most, the way we
look at the population. So I don't think that will be a problem.
And the other thing about single payer is in the President's plan,
each State has the right to be a single-payer State if they so choose.
And so that is something we want local people to make a decision about.
Q. Hillary and Mr. President, to quote you about ``we'll watch it.''
That happened to my wife. She died because a doctor said, ``We'll watch
it.''
Now, as a little aside, Mr. President, our honorable Governor will
concur, we do have the best health care in the world right here in
Florida. Our number two industry is citrus, oranges and grapefruit--has
the best health care for Florida at the moment. Thank you.
The President. Go ahead.
[A participant asked about health care coverage for mental illness.]
Mrs. Clinton. I wish that this gentleman had the microphone so you
could have heard. He made the point that a third of the people who are
homeless have mental health problems. Many people in our prisons have
mental health problems. And many Americans have mental health and
substance abuse problems. We want to begin covering mental health
problems. And in the benefits package the President has proposed, that
will begin because it is not fair to turn our backs on mental illness
like schizophrenia or clinical depression and not treat it like a
disease. And in fact, if we began to treat it, it will actually help
more people and save us all money. And so we're going to start doing
that and beginning to treat mental health right.
Q. ----Mr. President. And to Hillary--Hillary, I know you've been
pushing the primary physician. And even though I'm on a board with a lot
of hospitals and doctors, how are you going to get rid of all these
specialists who charge millions and millions of dollars for IRS, salary,
MRI's, and scans? We need primary health care. Will you push that,
please?
Mrs. Clinton. Yes, we do need more primary health care physicians,
and we're going to try to create more and also advanced-practice nurses
and physician assistants because we really need a team of doctors and
nurses and other health care professionals to work together on primary
care so that our specialists, then, can get the good referrals that they
need to take care of people.
The President. Don't let--let me just say this: Don't let anybody
tell you, scare you, into saying that we are for undermining the
American people having enough specialists.
[[Page 594]]
That's a load of hooey. Right now we've got enough specialists for 30
years, but we don't have enough primary-care physicians in most States
in the country. So we'll take care of the specialists, but we have to
have our primary physicians first.
Q. Mr. President, I realize that you're trying to redo the medical
program. The problem that I'm facing, and I might be the youngest one in
the crowd, is I have somebody at home who has applied for Medicare
disability and should be eligible. And what is happening to this person
is over a year ago or a year and half ago, this person was denied it
twice. It has gone to Federal court. We have an honorable lawyer, and
the judges are writing one thing and saying another. And what I'd like
to do--and I made myself a promise I was going to do this today, I'll be
glad to pass it on to you--I would like you to look at--may I come
forward?
The President. I'll have somebody come get it.
Q. Well, I could come forward.
And I have to say to you, that while you are fixing or redoing a new
prescription for medicine, I think you need to look at this
documentation and talk to--I'm very disappointed, but I know Senator
Graham who I have been working with on this has the whole file. And I
think there are a lot of disabled people, I might be one of them next,
that need help and need a system that's ethical and moral.
And I thank you for listening to me, and I wish you good luck
because we need it.
The President. Thank you very much.
Q. Mr. President, I'd like to tell you what happened to my mother.
She needed a operation and was told to go to a doctor to get this
operation. The doctor said, ``Yes, you need a gallstone operation, but
my price is $5,000.'' My father says, ``I can give you my life savings
of $1,000; I don't have $5,000.'' He said, ``Mr. Segal, if you don't
have money to go in a taxi, you ride in a subway.'' And he left.
The President. I think what you said speaks for itself. And thank
you for having the courage to tell us. Thank you.
Q. Mr. President, a lot of people here know me. I've been
coordinating your health care plan for south Florida since the
Inauguration. And I just want to comment that it's really a pleasure to
do so. But I'd like to ask you what's asked of me when I give speeches
around. They say, ``Mr. Brodin, how does this lower or lessen their
bureaucracy? If anything, you're going to create another level of
bureaucracy.'' Could they hear it from your lips, that I prize your
words greatly, and explain to them as I have tried, how it will not only
not multiply it, but it will actually significantly lessen it. And by
the way, it's a pleasure to work with you, too.
The President. Here's why it will lessen the bureaucracy. Look
what--what runs the bureaucracy up today? Talk to any doctor or nurse.
Talk to these nurses here. You have 1,500 separate health insurance
companies writing thousands and thousands of different policies, each of
them with different coverages or different copays or different
deductibles. Once you standardize the benefit package and standardize
the coverage, then you make it possible for every person to fill out one
form. The insured person can fill out one form, a simple form. The nurse
at the hospital or the clinic can fill out one form. You will
drastically cut the paperwork, the insurance people will be processing
one form.
So I want to--the people--you will need fewer jobs in clerical work
in hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies. You will need more jobs
in providing home health care, community-based health care, and doing
other things. But it will be, from a pure paperwork point of view, it
will be much simpler because of the reform of the insurance packages.
Now, what that means is the little insurance companies will either
have to resort to selling supplemental policies or go into cooperative
arrangements so they can insure people in big pools and make money the
way grocery stores do, a little bit of money on a lot of people instead
of a lot of money on a few people.
But that's why it will be much simpler. The central benefit package
in the common system--and everybody carries a little card around like
that card up there and just files for the health care.
Q. Thank you. That's my most frequently asked question----
[[Page 595]]
Q. [Inaudible]--dedicated State employee. My name is--and I've been
deprived of all my State benefits for the past two years. My dad in
Cleveland has had to pay for my Blue Cross-Blue Shield for me. And I
just--[inaudible]--grave injustice. And I'm just asking for help from
you and also from the Governor, because I've been calling his office for
the last 2 years to help me, and no one has helped me. And I was a
devoted State employee and the only girl in my office in Broward County,
and I don't deserve it--the division of hotels and restaurants.
Mrs. Clinton. Thank you. We will look into that. But your concern
and your feeling obviously goes far beyond your own case because people
lose their jobs, then they lose their health care benefits.
Q. But I was a loyal----
Mrs. Clinton. And they can be loyal, hard-working people. And you
don't deserve it. And when I think about that----
Q. [Inaudible]--and they crucified me for no reason.
Mrs. Clinton. We'll look into that, thank you.
But what we are going to try to do is eliminate the problem. The
problem should be eliminated so that when you lose your job, you still
have insurance. You don't have to worry about it anymore.
Q. [Inaudible].
The President. Medical overbilling--there's a special provision in
the plan that will enable us to do that.
Again, if you have everybody covered in the uniform system, it will
be much easier to see whether there is overbilling than there is now.
Q. Your health care plan is great, great for people who have
existing problems, also, good for my grandma and her contemporaries. But
what about my generation and my mom's? Will there still be enough money
for these funds for our security?
The President. Absolutely. Here's the thing. If we don't do
something now, then there may not be enough money for adequate health
care because we can't have another 10 years when the cost of health care
goes up at 2 and 3 times the rate of inflation, so people pay more money
for the same health care.
And also, keep in mind, our plan covers things for your generation
that aren't covered now like medicine and preventive care and mental
health coverage, things that aren't covered now. So the answer to your
question is your generation has a lot better chance if you pass a plan
and we slow the growth of health care cost.
We could stay here tomorrow at dawn. You've been great being out
here in all this hot weather.
Thank you so much.
Note: The President spoke at 1:23 p.m. at Century Village East. In his
remarks, he referred to Lawrence Smedley, executive director, National
Council of Senior Citizens; Joanne Pepper, cousin of the late
Congressman and senior citizen advocate, Claude Pepper, and; Michael
Dukakis, former Presidential candidate, and his wife Kitty. A tape was
not available for verification of the content of these remarks.