[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 13 (Monday, April 4, 1994)]
[Pages 646-647]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
The President's Radio Address
March 26, 1994
Good morning. This morning I'm speaking to you from Dallas, Texas,
courtesy of station KRLD in Dallas, and from the Scottish Rite Hospital
for Children, one of the finest pediatric medical centers in America.
Today in the audience we have parents and children who have been
patients here. I want to thank the president of the hospital, J.C.
Montgomery, and Dr. Tony Herring and all the others who gave Hillary and
me such a wonderful tour today.
Places like Scottish Rite don't ask children with severe
disabilities or serious illnesses, ``Can you pay?'' They just ask, ``How
can I help?'' The wonderful team of doctors, nurses, and other hospital
workers here take all children in need. That's what we want for all of
America.
Last Wednesday at the White House, Sister Bernice Coreil, a member
of the Sisters of Charity, the religious order which runs the largest
nonprofit hospital system in America, spoke about health care in a way
seldom heard in the Nation's Capital. She pushed all the politics and
complex arguments aside and said health care is about basic human
values, about honoring the intrinsic value of every person.
She knows, as so many health professionals do, that if we don't do
something now, the future of health care is in trouble in America,
because more Americans are losing their health coverage or can't get it
because someone in their family has been sick, because more people with
coverage are losing the right to choose their doctors or their health
plans, because more of our hospitals are in trouble.
Without change, the future of health care will include less choice
and bigger bills and maybe lower quality, too. Instead of health care
being available to all Americans, more Americans are losing their health
coverage every month.
How can we change? How can we keep what's best about our system, our
wonderful caregivers, our wonderful medical research system, and fix
what's wrong, the fact that there aren't enough places like this
Scottish Rite Hospital, that too many people are losing their coverage,
that the financing system is a bureaucratic nightmare full of
unfairness? I think we can do better simply by building on what works in
the current system, using the workplace to guarantee private insurance
for every American. It is the foundation of our plan.
Just a few days ago, the first of many committees considering health
care reform in Congress approved a plan like ours, covering every
American. In spite of all the special interest and TV ads, the committee
made an important statement. After 60 years of gridlock, the American
people are being heard. They want us to take care of their important
business, like health care reform, and now we're beginning to do that.
The administration's approach to health care reform is
straightforward: guaranteed private insurance for every American that
can never be taken away. And we want to be careful to base our approach
on the best of American values. Guaranteed private insurance, making
sure everyone has good health care, not only those who can pay whatever
it costs, is the ticket to opportunity.
When our plan passes and your health care can never be taken away,
that means you'll be able to change jobs, move, start a small business
without worrying that your health care or your family's health will be
threat-
[[Page 647]]
ened. Just this morning I met a fine couple here with twin boys. The
boys have some undiagnosed medical difficulties, but they cannot get any
health insurance because of that. The father and the mother have been
under great stress and great difficulty. If it weren't for this hospital
and others like it, I don't know what families like that would do. We
can do better.
In addition to guaranteed private insurance, we want the freedom for
all Americans to make choices in the American tradition, guaranteeing
the right to choose a doctor and an insurance plan. We trust the
American people with the freedom to choose every year rather than
leaving that choice to an employer or an insurance company.
Third, health reform in our plan is about fairness, correcting
abuses in the insurance practices today. No more denying people
insurance because they are sick, no more lifetime limits that cut off
coverage when you need it the most, no more higher rates for the elderly
or for small employers or self-employed people and farmers. These things
aren't fair, and Americans deserve fairness.
Fourth, health care reform is about keeping faith with those who
came before us. We preserve and protect Medicare without reservation or
exception. Older Americans simply must be able to continue to rely on
Medicare and to choose their own doctor. We do want to cover
prescription drugs under Medicare for the first time and provide the
elderly and chronically ill children or disabled Americans of all ages
the chance to get some long-term care in their home or in their
community if they need it.
Finally, health care is about responsibility, about rewarding those
who work. Under our approach, you get your insurance through work. Most
jobs already have health care; why shouldn't all of them? Eight out of
ten Americans without insurance belong to working families. We should
always reward work in America, and the right to health care should be
part of that reward. Opportunity, freedom, and fairness, honoring the
senior citizens and those who take responsibility, these are the values
that have helped to build America, and they are at the heart of our
health care proposal.
This weekend marks the arrival of Palm Sunday and Passover. It's a
special week of reflection for everyone of the Jewish and Christian
faiths, a time when we step back from the concerns of daily life and
think more deeply about our religious traditions and the values they
teach us.
Sitting in this wonderful hospital for children, I'm reminded that
providing health care and the peace of mind that comes with it is also a
practical expression of our deepest faith and ideals. The wonderful
doctors and nurses and volunteers here at Scottish Rite Hospital for
Children take in every child. No family has been charged. They live our
best values. But they'd be the first to tell you that more than 9
million American children have no health insurance and most don't have
access to a hospital like this.
That's not right, and health care reform is about doing what's
right, about having compassion and bestowing dignity on each of us as
God's children. These are enduring values, the source of the moral
authority that has made our Nation great. And they are the lessons each
of us, in our own way, can take from Easter and Passover. With these
values to guide us, I know we'll succeed.
Thank you for listening.
Note: The President spoke at 9:06 a.m. at the Scottish Rite Hospital for
Children in Dallas. In his address, he referred to Dr. Tony Herring,
chief of staff, Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.