[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 44 (Monday, November 4, 2002)]
[Pages 1865-1866]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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The President's Radio Address

October 26, 2002

    America's health care system has advantages no other nation can 
match but also challenges we cannot ignore. The quality of American 
medicine is excellent. Yet too many Americans live in communities 
lacking good clinics and basic health care. Others are forced to wait 
for new medical devices that are delayed in an overburdened approval 
process. And the high cost of prescription drugs is placing a heavy 
financial burden on many Americans, especially our seniors.
    This week, we are taking steps to address all of these problems. 
Today I have signed legislation that will expand the number of community 
health centers across the country. Community health centers are 
America's health care safety net, providing prenatal care, checkups, and 
preventative treatments to anyone who walks in the door. They serve more 
than a million people, mainly in remote areas or in inner-city 
neighborhoods, places where too many people do not have the access to 
the quality health care they deserve.
    I have set a goal of creating 1,200 new and expanded community 
health centers by the year 2006. The bill I signed today will help my 
administration achieve this goal. If Congress funds my budget request 
for these important health centers, we can help an additional 1 million 
Americans get health care in 2003 and 4 million more by 2006.
    Also today I'm signing legislation that provides faster access to 
safe and effective medical devices. Each year, American companies are 
creating new technologies to save and improve lives, technologies like 
coronary stints and increasingly sophisticated pacemakers, which have 
helped reduce the death rate from heart disease by 35 percent since 
1980.
    Medical devices are often very complex and require careful testing 
before they're approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But the FDA 
is overwhelmed by the volume of new technologies, making delays more 
frequent and undermining the quality of device reviews. Under the new 
law, we're going to speed up and improve the approval process. Companies 
that manufacture medical devices will be required to pay a reasonable 
fee to the FDA, so the FDA can afford more expert staff to conduct 
thorough reviews within reasonable time limits. The entire Nation will 
benefit from a faster approval of lifesaving innovations.
    Earlier this week, I also announced action to bring lower cost 
generic drugs to market more quickly. Right now, some brand-name drug 
companies are using legal maneuvers to delay the approval of generic 
drugs, sometimes for years. We're setting new limits on those delays. By 
reducing the public's wait for quality generic drugs, we will reduce the 
cost of prescriptions in this country by more than $3 billion each year. 
These savings will help employer health plans, State Medicaid programs, 
and seniors who buy medicines on their own.
    On health care reform, we still have much work ahead of us. I 
applaud the House of Representatives for passing a prescription drug 
benefit for seniors and for its efforts to fix the Nation's badly broken 
medical liability system, which is driving up the cost of medicine and 
driving good doctors out of the profession. I'm disappointed that the 
Senate has failed to act on these important reforms.
    With these reforms and the actions we have taken this week, we will 
bring the benefits of our health care system into the lives of more 
Americans. Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 3:35 p.m. on October 25 at the Bush 
Ranch in Crawford, TX, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 26. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 25 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.

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