    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 47 (Monday, November 29, 1999)]
    [Pages 2411-2412]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    The President's Radio Address

    November 20, 1999

        Good morning. I'm speaking to you from Istanbul, Turkey, where we
    just wrapped up a successful summit meeting of the Organization of
    Security and Cooperation in Europe, one that focused on the global
    challenges of the new century. At the same time, our administration has
    also wrapped up our work with Congress on the first budget of the new
    century.
        Today I want to talk to you about what we achieved and highlight a
    little-known accomplishment that will make a big difference to people
    with disabilities who want to be part of our Nation's growing economy.
        This week's budget agreement is truly a victory for the American
    people, a victory for children because it invests in world-class
    education that keeps us on the path to hiring 100,000 quality teachers
    to reduce class size. It doubles funds for after-school and summer
    school programs, and it provides help for communities to turn around
    failing schools or shut them down. It's a victory for families and
    neighborhoods, because it commits the resources necessary to begin
    hiring another 50,000 community police officers to keep our crime rate,
    already at a 25-year low, coming down. It's a victory for future
    generations, because it protects the environment and preserves more
    natural areas, and it's a victory for American leadership in the world,
    because finally, it pays our U.N. dues and maintains our commitments
    around the globe to peace in the Middle East, to reducing the nuclear
    threat and chemical weapons threats, to helping relieve the debt of the
    world's poorest nations.
        In short, we have delivered a 21st century budget that prepares for
    the future and lives up to our values. It also continues to pay down our
    national debt, because we walked away from that big $792 billion tax cut
    that the Congress passed and I vetoed. So we got the best of all worlds.
        Perhaps nothing better symbolizes just what we were fighting for
    than the historic progress made in the budget to open new doors of
    opportunity for Americans with disabilities.
        Now, we're enjoying one of the strongest economies in generations.
    Yet even today 75 percent of Americans with severe disabilities who are
    ready, willing, and able to work aren't working. One of the biggest
    reasons is they fear they'll lose their health insurance when they get a
    job. And there's a good reason for this fear.
        Under current law, many people with disabilities are eligible for
    Medicaid or Medicare coverage. But they can't go to work and keep that
    coverage. Yet when they do go to work, they can't get private insurance
    because of their disability. So there is a tremendous disincentive to
    work. Let me just give you one example.
        I met a man in New Hampshire not long ago who is paralyzed as a
    result of an accident. He wanted to take a job that paid $28,000 a year,
    but he would have lost his Medicaid health coverage, which would have

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    led to medical expenses of $40,000 a year. Now, the taxpayers would
    actually be better off. We're going to pay the medical expenses one way
    or the other, but if he went to work, he'd become a taxpaying citizen.
    And, more important, he would have the dignity of work. No citizen
    should have to choose between going to work and paying medical bills.
        I'm very proud this week that Congress, on a bipartisan basis,
    finally agreed on the historic ``Work Incentives Improvement Act.'' It's
    bipartisan legislation to allow people with disabilities to keep their
    health care on the job. They can earn a salary, pay taxes, and be role
    models by proving what people can do if given a chance to live up to
    their God-given potential.
        This will make a real difference, also, for people with potentially
    severe disabilities--those who are facing the early onset of diseases
    like AIDS, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, or diabetes. Right now they
    may be able to work, but their conditions aren't deemed severe enough to
    qualify for Medicaid. Yet because they have them, they still can't get
    private health insurance. In other words, they can't get any health care
    until they're too sick to work.
        In the final hours of negotiations, we were able to further
    strengthen this legislation by getting $250 million for a demonstration
    program to allow these Americans to buy into Medicaid, stay on the job,
    and stay healthier longer. I encourage all the States to take advantage
    of these new health care options.
        Taken together, this initiative is the most significant advancement
    for people with disabilities since the passage of the Americans with
    Disabilities Act almost a decade ago. It is part of our administration's
    7-year commitment to tearing down barriers to work and rewarding
    responsibility. Along with reforming welfare, increasing the minimum
    wage, increasing child care assistance, and doubling the earned-income
    tax credit, the ``Work Incentives Improvement Act'' is another milestone
    on the path to opening work and rewarding responsibility for Americans.
        Now, I hope we'll stay on that course and take on America's still-
    unfinished agenda: commonsense gun safety legislation, a real Patients'
    Bill of Rights, meaningful hate crimes legislation, saving Social
    Security, reforming Medicare, adding prescription drug coverage, raising
    the minimum wage.
        To Congress I say, we've done a good job for the American people by
    working together. Let's keep working together, build on our progress,
    and get the right things done for the American people.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 12:41 p.m. on November 19 in the Perge
    Room at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, for broadcast at 10:06
    a.m. on November 20. The transcript was made available by the Office of
    the Press Secretary on November 19 but was embargoed for release until
    the broadcast.