    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 19 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
    [Pages 1017-1018]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    in New York City

    May 9, 1994

        Thank you so much, Jack. And I want to thank you and all of you here
    for hosting me today. I was beginning to tell a story. You know, the
    first job I ever had was working in a grocery store. I was 13 years old;
    I don't think I violated the child labor laws at the time. [Laughter]
    But anyway, I did. And so every time I come into a food store, I'm
    always so happy, and I look around to see how the merchandise is stacked
    and how it's organized and everything. And I remember how different it
    was when I started my career as a worker almost 35 years ago now.
        I want to thank you for your support of this endeavor. I want to
    thank Senator Connor and my longtime friend, your borough president,
    Ruth Messenger, for being here today in support of this. I want to thank
    Doug Dority and the United Food and Commercial Workers for their support
    of health care reform and their intense efforts to educate the Congress
    about this.
        I want to say again what this plastic bag says, and I want to
    emphasize why I'm here today, besides the fact that I was kind of
    hungry, driving in from the airport. [Laughter] That bag says:
    ``Pathmark and the UFCW support health benefits at work and quality
    health care, including prescription medicines for all Americans.'' That
    just about says it all.
        We're having this raging political struggle in Washington where
    everybody in the wide world says, ``Oh, I believe every American ought
    to have access to health care, but we can't figure out how to do it.''
    And the Members of Congress are being told day-in and day-out that all
    retail establishments and all small businesses oppose requiring
    employers and employees that don't have any health insurance at all now
    to get coverage at work, with the employers paying a substantial and
    fair share of that. And the image they have now is that all retail
    establishments and all small businesses feel that way. We have now
    produced hundreds of small business people, men and women from all over
    America who say, ``I want to insure my employees, but I can't afford to
    because my competitors don't have to do it. Please require us all to do
    it, and then give small business the same chance to buy that big
    business has.''
        Today, you see a major American retailer, 175 stores, a company
    that's proved that you can be socially responsible and still make money.
    You can provide health care to your employees, and you can put stores in
    the inner cities. And you can make money by treating people right, your
    customers and the people who work with you. That is the message today.
        The truth is that if all retailers in the country had to provide
    insurance on equal terms to their employees, you would be advantaged,
    because no one would be able to get a competitive advantage over you by
    not covering their employees while you all are covered, and you bear
    that cost in common and the truth is that in the future, your health
    benefits could be purchased for a lower cost. That is, your costs
    wouldn't go up as much because today part of your cost is paying the
    bill for everybody who doesn't have coverage, because when they get
    sick, they get care. They show up at the emergency room when it's too
    late and too expensive, and then the

    [[Page 1018]]

    cost is passed on to everybody in our society who is paying a fair
    share.
        So this is a very, very important thing today. By being here, you
    are saying to me that you support health benefits at work. It works for
    you, and it can work for America. I just want to point out that, today,
    9 out of 10 Americans who have private insurance get their insurance at
    work. Eight out of 10 Americans who do not have health insurance are in
    working families. Therefore, the most conservative, the most practical,
    the most realistic way to cover all Americans is to say, if people are
    working, they should be covered at work, and their employers should bear
    a fair share of that cost, like most employers do. If people are not
    working, then the Government should figure out how to handle it.
        Today, unless you're older, on Medicare, the only people with
    guaranteed health care in this country are people on welfare. Why should
    people on welfare have a guarantee that people that are working don't
    have? There are people all over this country who are on welfare who
    would quit and go to work, let's say for one of your competitors who
    doesn't provide health care, and lose health care benefits for their
    children.
        Think of that: Well, what's your story? ``Oh, I left welfare. I went
    to work at Food Store X. I don't have health care, but at least I'm
    working. Now I'm paying taxes so people who didn't go to work and stayed
    on welfare could get health care.'' You don't have to be a genius to
    figure out that doesn't make any sense. It is not fair. It is not right.
    It is not fair for your competitors to have any price advantage over you
    because they don't contribute to their employees' health care.
        It's also not fair for people whose children are born with an
    illness or who develop an illness not to ever be able to get health
    insurance because they were never in a work unit that provided it. There
    are millions of people like that. So I just wanted to thank you for
    giving me a chance, through the press, to show America that there are
    plenty of businesses who support requiring employers to pay their fair
    share. Plenty of them. And you represent that. And the truth is this
    country would be a whole lot better off if all the food stores in
    America did what you do instead of walking away. But unless everybody
    does it, it's going to be harder and harder and harder for you to do it.
    That's what Jack said, and it's absolutely right.
        Let me say, I just saw Senator Moynihan walk in. Come over here,
    Senator Moynihan. Senator Moynihan, your Senator, is the chairman of the
    Senate Finance Committee, which has the largest share of responsibility
    for the health care bill in the United States Senate. And he will tell
    you that the big battle that we're fighting out there is how to find a
    way to cover everybody.
        You have proved that a retail establishment can cover their
    employees and make money, that by treating people right you get higher
    productivity, greater employee loyalty, more production, and in the end,
    higher profits. But it isn't right unless everybody has to do it.
        So I want to ask you as I close, every time you fill up that bag,
    tell people you mean it. And ask them to call their Member of Congress
    or write them or drop them a note and say, this is important for
    America. If we don't now seize this opportunity to give health care
    security to all of our people, more and more people will start to lose
    insurance. Another 100,000 Americans a month lose their health insurance
    permanently. It is not right. We can do this right. It will save us
    money over the long run. We will be a healthier, stronger, happier, more
    coherent, more cohesive society if we do this. We have ignored this for
    60 years. In 1994 we can do something about it if people like you will
    let your voices be heard.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:54 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Jack Futterman, chairman and chief executive officer of Pathmark, and
    Doug Dority, international president, United Food and Commercial
    Workers.