[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 28 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[Pages 1339-1340]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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The President's Radio Address

July 10, 1999

    Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about our Nation's duty to 
ensure that all America's seniors can enjoy their golden years as 
healthy as modern medicine will allow. I want to talk about my plan to 
strengthen and modernize Medicare and the important steps we can take to 
encourage older Americans to undergo health screenings that can save 
their lives and improve the quality of their lives.
    For 34 years now, Medicare has been the cornerstone of our efforts 
to protect the health of the disabled and our seniors. Last month at the 
White House, I unveiled a fiscally responsible plan to secure and 
modernize this vital program for the 21st century. The plan will 
strengthen Medicare by controlling cost, promoting competition, and 
dedicating a significant portion of the budget surplus to keeping the 
Trust Fund solvent until the year 2027. And my plan will modernize 
Medicare by matching its benefits to the latest advances of modern 
medicine.
    Since Medicare's founding in 1965, a medical revolution has 
transformed health care in America. Once the cure for many illnesses was 
a scalpel; now, just as likely, it's a pharmaceutical. That's why I made 
helping seniors afford the prescription drugs essential to modern 
medical care a key part of the Medicare plan.
    But even as we modernize Medicare with the prescription drug 
benefit, we also must modernize Medicare's preventive care benefits. 
Today, doctors have new tools to detect and prevent diseases earlier and 
more effectively than ever. And for millions, early detection can mean 
the difference between a full recovery and a bleak prognosis. For 
instance, if prostate cancer is caught early, the survival rate is 99 
percent; but if it isn't, the rate can be a discouraging 31 percent.
    In 1997 we worked across party lines to expand Medicare coverage for 
preventive services. But too few seniors still are using this benefit. 
Last year just one in seven older women received a mammogram covered by 
Medicare. For many seniors on fixed incomes, who every day must struggle 
to pay for food, rent, and other necessities, the cost of even a modest 
copayment can be prohibitive. And that can cost lives.
    It makes no sense for Medicare to put up roadblocks to screenings 
and then turn around and pick up the hospital bills its screenings might 
have avoided. No one should have to undergo a dangerous surgical 
procedure that could have been prevented by a simple test. No senior 
should have to hesitate to get the preventive care they need. That's why 
my plan will eliminate the deductible in all copayments for all 
preventive services--for cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other 
diseases.
    And because 70 percent of beneficiaries still do not even know about 
all of Medicare's preventive services, we'll launch a nationwide 
campaign to inform and encourage seniors to take these tests. We'll keep 
looking into ways to improve preventive care for seniors, including 
strategies to help them stop smoking.
    In the meantime, I call on older Americans to take advantage of the 
preventive benefits that already are available to you. They could save 
your life.
    We must seize America's moment of prosperity to strengthen and 
modernize Medicare for the 21st century. There are some who propose 
spending our new budget surpluses on tax cuts. Well, I support tax cuts 
for retirement savings, for child care, for education, but it would be 
wrong to spend our hard-earned surplus on tax cuts before we first have 
honored our obligations to our seniors and to all our families in the 
21st century. First things first.
    I've invited leaders of both parties to meet with me at the White 
House on Monday to discuss the urgency of acting on Medicare now. We 
have an unprecedented opportunity to prepare Medicare and Social 
Security for the retirement of the baby boomers and to pay down our 
debt--to make America debt-free over the next 15 years. We can't let 
this

[[Page 1340]]

opportunity slip away. Together, we can find a way to make this summer a 
true season of progress for all Americans.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 11:20 a.m. on July 9 in Room 210 at 
the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA, for broadcast at 10:06 
a.m. on July 10. The transcript was made available by the Office of the 
Press Secretary on July 9 but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast.