[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 23 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[Pages 997-998]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Congressional Leaders and an Exchange 
With Reporters

June 5, 1996

Medicare

    The President. Good afternoon. Let me say that I'm looking forward 
to this opportunity to meet with the House Democratic caucus to talk 
about the work that we have ahead of us. But before I do, I would like 
to make one particular point. Of all the issues before us, I would very 
much like to see the Congress take up and pass a good, clean version of 
the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill in the next few days.
    Senator Dole has said that he will be leaving the Senate soon, and I 
respect that decision. But this is one issue that he and I agree on. He 
very much wants this bill to pass in a good form that I can sign. And I 
just want to say to him and to all of you that I'm prepared to do 
whatever it takes in the next few

[[Page 998]]

days to meet with him, do whatever I can, and meet with other 
Republicans to try to get the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill passed before he 
leaves the Senate. I think that is something we ought to do for the 
American people. I know it would mean a lot to him. It would certainly 
mean a lot to me. And I'm very hopeful that we can prevail in getting 
that done.
    Q. Mr. President, the Medicare trustees are reporting today that 
there was one less year of solvency than originally expected. You have 
said in the past this should be put off until after the election. Do you 
still feel it should be put off?
    The President. No, no, no. No, I haven't said--I'm sorry. Our plan--
and by the way, the savings that have been agreed on already by the 
Republicans and the Democrats in the balanced budget negotiations would 
put another decade on the Medicare Trust Fund. And I think we ought to 
do that right away. I have always felt that way.
    The plan that I detailed last year included Medicare reductions of 
$270 billion, $170 billion more than the Trust Fund--the trustees said 
was necessary to go into the Trust Fund to stabilize it.
    But the differences in our numbers now are not that dramatic, and 
the amount that we have agreed on in common would add--would take it out 
to 10 years, and I think we ought to do that now. I think we ought to--
I've always said we should go on and pass the right kind of balanced 
budget and do that. We can do that now with no trouble. We have agreed 
on those things. Providers know they're coming. Everybody understands 
how they would be managed. And I think we ought to do that. We should 
not wait.
    Q. [Inaudible]--you all can get together on those. Is that the 
problem?
    The President. What?
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. Well, yes. The problems are, I think far more than 
the money involved, is the structure of Medicare. I don't favor breaking 
the structure of Medicare. I think putting the medical savings account 
for Medicare payments in would be a particularly bad idea. You know, 
Medicare has the lowest administrative cost of any health insurance plan 
in America, private or public. It has done a basically good job. There 
are more seniors now on the plan than ever before. We have to deal with 
the population problems that exist now and the ones that are going to 
exist in the future.
    But we have the ability right now to put 10 years into the life of 
the Medicare Trust Fund, and we ought to just do it. We ought to just go 
on and do that. We can do that with no problem, and we can do it in the 
context of a balanced budget plan.
    Q. Thank you.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:50 p.m. at the Longworth House Office 
Building on Capitol Hill. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.