[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 14 (Monday, April 10, 2006)]
[Pages 633-641]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion on Health Care Reform in Bridgeport, Connecticut

April 5, 2006

    The President. Thank you all. Darrell, thanks for the invitation. I 
think you're going to find this an interesting way to discuss a vital 
issue for our country, and that is, really, how do we stay competitive? 
How does the United States of America remain the preeminent economic 
leader in the world?
    And one way you do so is you make sure you've got an environment 
where small businesses can thrive, where people can feel comfortable in 
having health care that's available and affordable. So thanks for coming 
and giving us a chance to discuss the issue. You notice I say ``us''--
there's nothing worse than a guy kind of blowing away in a lecture, so 
I've invited fellow citizens to come and share their experiences about 
an interesting way to approach affordability and availability in health 
care.
    But before I do that, I want to thank you all very much for taking 
time out of your day to come and listen. I appreciate very much the 
Governor, Jodi Rell, joining us. Governor Rell is a--you know, I know 
something about Governors; I used to be one. She is really a dignified, 
classy woman who has done a fine job for the State of Connecticut.
    I flew down today with Congressman Chris Shays. Shays is a very 
thoughtful person. He is a friend. He is an independent fellow--
[laughter]--who speaks his mind. But he does so in a way that gets 
people to listen to him. And I appreciate his thoughtful approach to a 
lot of issues. And I appreciate your friendship as well. I'm looking 
forward to hearing your lecture on the way back to Washington. 
[Laughter]
    Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. So Laura comes back and says, 
``I met the mayor of Bridgeport; he's a good guy.'' I say, ``Well, 
that's great.'' I don't know what you did, Mayor, but you at least 
convinced the First Lady you're a good guy. [Laughter] And I appreciate 
your hospitality and your kindness to my wife who--you know, she's 
really not a politician. She is a really fine woman, great mother, great 
wife, thoughtful person. And I appreciate your kindness to her. She's 
also obviously got good judgment--her Chief of Staff, Anita McBride, was 
raised right here in Bridgeport.
    I appreciate other State and local officials who are here, thank all 
the business leaders. The challenge is whether or not this Nation is 
going to be a confident nation. Our economy is strong right now. GDP 
grew at 3.5 percent last year. We're adding jobs. The national 
unemployment rate is 4.8 percent. I think the unemployment rate here is 
something less than that, here in the State of Connecticut. People are 
working. Small businesses are flourishing. Productivity is up. And the 
fundamental question is, how do we keep it that way? What do we do? Do 
we lose our confidence and retreat, or do we create the conditions so 
that capital flows and the entrepreneurial spirit remains strong?
    My attitude is that the United States is the leader of the world, 
and by putting good policies into place, we'll remain the leader of the 
world. And that's where we should be. And so here are some ideas as to 
how to do that.
    One is to keep taxes low. I believe when people have more money in 
their pockets it helps the entrepreneurial spirit, causes the economy to 
grow. One reason we overcame the recession and the stock market collapse 
and the attacks on our country and the wars we've been through and the 
natural disasters we've been through is because people have got more 
money to save and invest and spend. And so I'm looking forward to 
working with Congress to keep the taxes low and, at the same time, be 
wise about how we spend the people's money.
    I understand we've got an issue with energy. I know it probably came 
as a shock to some of my fellow citizens here in Connecticut when I 
stood up in front of the country and said, ``We've got a problem; we're 
addicted to oil.'' And I meant it. We've got an economic problem being 
addicted to oil because when fossil fuels--demand for fossil fuels rise 
in other parts of the world, it causes our energy bills to go up. We've 
got a national security problem when it comes to oil. When you've got 
people in the world who don't like us, from which we get supplies of 
oil, it causes those problems to come into the Oval Office. And 
therefore, we have to deal with

[[Page 634]]

the geopolitics of oil when it comes to securing this country. And we've 
got an environmental problem relying upon fossil fuels. And so I think 
there's a better way forward, and I look forward to working with 
Congress to keep us competitive in the world's stage by diversifying 
away from the use of oil.
    And here are some ideas: Using ethanol in our automobiles is an 
idea, developing hybrid plug-in batteries so that we can drive the first 
40 miles on electricity and not using gasoline, being wise about nuclear 
power, using solar power. There's a variety of things we need to do 
together to help us diversify away from hydrocarbons, and I'm intent 
upon doing that for the sake of the competitiveness of the United States 
of America.
    Another idea I look forward to working with Congress on is to make 
sure that we are competitive when it comes to having the workforce of 
the 21st century, and we're going to make good progress on this with 
Congress. And that is to do something on the research and development 
tax credit, is double our commitment to the research in the basic 
sciences in Washington, DC, so that we're technologically competent, 
that we're on the leading edge of research when it comes to the world's 
economy, and then make sure our kids have got the skills necessary to 
fill the jobs by emphasizing math and science, particularly in junior 
high.
    In terms of competitiveness, a big issue, of course, is health care. 
And in Washington, DC, there is a philosophical debate that rages. And 
that is how best to implement a health care strategy; what should it 
look like? And to simplify the debate, it basically says, ``Government 
ought to be the decider. Government ought to drive demand, and 
Government ought to control supply,'' versus a system in which 
individuals are in charge of their own health care decisions. I 
recognize that it may be oversimplification, but, nevertheless, that's 
the crux of the debate.
    And it's an important debate, and so I've got some ideas as to how 
this debate ought to go. And it starts with, one, a Federal commitment 
to certain people within our society, the poor and the elderly. The 
Medicare plan we passed modernized Medicare for the first time since 
Lyndon Johnson provided that--signed that bill. It is an important piece 
of legislation. It is working; 27 million Americans have signed up. If 
you have not looked at the new Medicare opportunities for you, you ought 
to do so by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
    Interestingly enough, by providing competition into the system--in 
other words, giving our seniors choices--the estimated cost for Medicare 
is dropping significantly. I believe competition works. And I believe 
Government ought to trust people to make the right decision for their 
selves and their families. And that's what Medicare has done.
    Another important way for health care to work is to expand community 
health centers. One of the things Shays told me was, he said you've got 
a good community health center here in Bridgeport. Community health 
centers are vehicles--places of opportunity for low-income citizens to 
be able to get primary care, so as to take the stress off of emergency 
rooms of your hospitals, for example.
    We've expanded 800 of them over the years; we intend to expand or 
open 400 more over the next 2 years. These are wise use of taxpayers' 
money, to help keep a Federal commitment to helping the poor deal with 
health care.
    And same goes to Medicaid. Medicaid is a very important program. I 
look forward to working with the Governors to make sure that the 
Medicaid system works more efficiently, most importantly for those who 
are getting Medicaid help.
    Now, in terms of a lot of other folks, it seems like to me that we 
ought to be working toward the design of a system that makes health care 
available and affordable. And let me give you some ideas as to how to do 
that.
    One, many small businesses are having trouble affording health care 
insurance. One of the reasons why is, they don't have the same pooling 
opportunity--pooling of risk opportunities that larger companies get. 
And so I think it makes sense to allow small businesses to pool risk 
across jurisdictional boundaries so they can afford the same kinds of 
insurance purchases that big companies get.
    For example, a restaurant in Bridgeport ought to be allowed to pool 
risk with a restaurant in Texas so that there's economies of risk. 
Today, that can't happen. Association

[[Page 635]]

health plans will enable small businesses to better afford insurance. 
I'm looking forward to working with Congress to get that out of the 
Congress.
    Secondly, one of the cost-drivers for health care are these 
frivolous lawsuits that are running good doctors out of practice and 
forces doctors and hospitals to practice defensive medicine. When I 
first went to Washington I said, ``Well, this is just a State issue,'' 
Governor. I thought it could be best solved at the State level, until I 
realized the defensive practice of medicine plus these liability 
increases through lawsuits costs us about $28 billion a year to the 
Federal--cost the Federal budget $28 billion. I said, that's a national 
problem, and it demands a national solution.
    The House passed a bill. Of course, it's stuck in the Senate. It 
needs to get out of the Senate. In order to make health care more 
affordable and more available, we need comprehensive medical liability 
reform immediately. You know what's an amazing statistic is, there are 
1,700 counties in our country that have no ob-gyn. They got run out of 
business. And that's not right, and it's not fair, and it's necessary 
for Congress to act.
    The third area we need to work on is information technologies. I 
know there is a lot of hospital people here. But we've set the goal--and 
I think you understand what I'm talking about, is to make sure that 
health care is brought into the 21st century by using information 
technology in such a way as, on the one hand, we have medical records; 
on the other hand, we protect patients' privacy. And we can do so.
    A classic example of the importance of information technology came 
down there with Katrina. A lot of veterans were displaced as a result of 
that hurricane, but they had medical electronic records because the 
Veterans Administration has begun to modernize. And therefore, they were 
able to take their medical electronics records to their destination--
where they moved to and were able to get immediate health care. The 
records were there; they were available. The doc that they checked in 
with was able to access their records on a real-time basis and were able 
to--so there was no, kind of, loss of care; there was no confusion about 
what was necessary.
    We will save a lot of costs with information technologies, and we'll 
reduce medical errors with information technologies. And Secretary 
Leavitt, who is the head of HHS, has got a strong program to encourage 
the advance of information technology. Some estimate we save 30 percent 
in health care costs when information technology is spread throughout 
our society. And so we've got a Federal commitment, and we look forward 
to working with you to spread that commitment.
    And finally, we're here to talk about what's called health savings 
accounts. It's a really interesting idea that Congress passed in the new 
Medicare law. It's an idea that it's really important for people--no 
matter what side of the philosophical debate you may be on--to at least 
pay attention to what's available. A health savings account addresses 
one of the major cost-drivers in our system, and that is, is that a lot 
of people get health care, but somebody else pays the bill. It's called 
a third-party-payer system.
    And when somebody else pays the bill, sometimes you don't pay 
attention to the cost. You know, when you go out and purchase an 
automobile, somebody doesn't pay the bill for you--you pay it. And you 
tend to shop and you look and you try to find out what's best for you. 
The third-party payer system, which is, you know, an integral part of 
our health care system today, essentially says, ``You sign up for a 
program, and if you get sick, somebody else will take care of it for 
you.'' And I believe that the more the consumer is involved in pricing, 
the more the consumer is involved in the decisionmaking, the more likely 
it is people will start making rational decisions for their own needs.
    And one way to do that is through the advent of health savings 
accounts, which is, in essence, health savings account coupled with a 
high-deductible, catastrophic insurance plan. That's long-word talk for 
if you get sick, above a certain amount, your insurance pays for it. If 
not, you pay for it. But the savings, if you don't spend money, are tax-
free. In other words, this is an interesting way of making sure the 
patient and the provider are the integral deciders in health care 
decisions.

[[Page 636]]

If that's not clear enough, they'll help clear it up for me.
    You know, LASIK surgery is an interesting--it's interesting to think 
about. LASIK surgery is a surgery that helps correct your eyesight. And 
I don't know how many years ago it was, but LASIK surgery was very 
expensive. But this happened to be a part of medical--medicine where 
there really was a market. More people began to provide LASIK surgery. 
People began to shop for LASIK surgery. And the cost for LASIK surgery 
has gone down dramatically, and the quality of LASIK surgery has 
improved dramatically.
    A lot of that has to do with the fact that the consumer was the 
decider. The consumer actually began to look around and decide what was 
best for him or her in the marketplace. That stands in contrast to a 
system where somebody else pays the bills.
    Health savings accounts really mean that the individual owns and 
controls their health care. Health savings accounts enable somebody to 
say, ``Look, if I make the right decisions about smoking or drinking or 
exercising, that I'll end up saving money.'' Health savings accounts 
help small businesses more afford health care coverage. Many of the 
uninsured are people who work for small businesses. They are the working 
uninsured. And if we have product available for small businesses to 
better afford insurance, it will help this country remain competitive.
    Health savings accounts would be good for young people. A lot of 
young people feel bulletproof. They don't feel like they need insurance; 
they don't think they're ever going to get sick. But if a young person 
starts saving now for future health care costs and the interest 
compounds on a tax-free basis, it's amazing how much money a person can 
save.
    And so this is an interesting idea. It started off rather slowly. In 
the marketplace today, there are about 3 million citizens who have got 
health savings accounts. Interestingly enough, part of the debate in 
Washington is, they say, ``Sure he wants health savings accounts; only 
the rich will access them.'' That's not what happened. The uninsured are 
accessing health savings accounts. Many of the health savings accounts 
owners are folks with their high school degree. A lot of health savings 
accounts owners are people with not an extraordinary amount of income. 
You know, it kind of defies the concept that certain people can't make 
decisions on their own--you know, ``If you don't have a Ph.D., you 
shouldn't be allowed to decide things.'' People are plenty smart when it 
comes to their own lives and coming to making decisions about health 
care needs. And I believe we ought to encourage more consumer activism, 
more involvement in making health care decisions.
    So that's what we're here to talk about. And by the way, one other 
point is you can't make good health care decisions unless there's 
transparency in the marketplace. People need to see price. One of the 
things we're trying to encourage is, for health care providers to post 
their prices so people can choose, so people are able to--you know, 
``This kind of makes sense for me; this doesn't make sense for me.'' 
Nontransparency in pricing makes it awfully hard to achieve savings. And 
after all, one of the national objectives has got to be to have a health 
care system that is available and affordable. Availability means 
transparency in prices; affordability means--will be enhanced by 
transparency in pricing.
    And so there's a competing vision from one that says, let's let the 
Federal Government make decisions. It's one vision I strongly support 
because I believe--I'm one of these kind of persons that believes that 
people are plenty capable of making rational decisions and choices.
    We're here to talk about this--I mentioned the panel of folks. We'll 
start with Steven Glick.
    Steven Glick. Yes, good morning, Mr. President. Welcome to 
Connecticut.
    The President. Yes, it's good to be back here. Was born here, good 
to be back. [Laughter] Educated here. [Laughter]
    Mr. Glick. We love that.
    The President. Yes.
    Mr. Glick. Before I make my remarks, I'd like to have my wife, Sally 
Glick, and partner in the business, stand up. She's in the middle of the 
row up there. Welcome.
    The President. That's a pretty good move. Smart guy, you know? 
Welcome, Sally.

[[Page 637]]

    Mr. Glick. Next to her is my son, Aaron, who is finishing his second 
year of law school--hopefully. [Laughter] And next to her is my 
daughter, Jamie Lombardi. Jamie is part of our team at CIT, and we 
welcome her.
    The President. Why don't you tell everybody what the CIT is.

[At this point, Steven Glick, administrator, Chamber Insurance Trust, 
made brief remarks.]

    The President. Good job. Skip the dating service thing. Anyway--
[laughter].
    Mr. Glick. Do you know----
    The President. No, I don't, believe me. [Laughter] Look, I'm the 
funny guy; you're the--[laughter].
    Mr. Glick. Once in my life. [Laughter]
    The President. One of the interesting things about society is 
there's--sometimes people resist change and part of the reasons I'm 
doing forums like this, and part of the reason Steve does what he does, 
is to help educate people about what's available.
    I strongly urge small-business owners to find out more about health 
savings accounts. I urge young people to find out about health savings 
accounts. It doesn't hurt to learn. And I think you'll find these to be 
very interesting opportunities. And one person who knows a lot about 
them is Dr. Bill West, entrepreneur.
    Bill West, Jr. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
    The President. Is that a true statement, ``entrepreneur''?
    Dr. West. Yes, absolutely.
    The President. Good. Sometimes ``doctor'' and ``entrepreneur'' don't 
go hand in hand. [Laughter]
    Dr. West. ``Businessman/doctor,'' don't go hand in hand.
    The President. What kind of doctor?
    Dr. West. I'm a board-certified practicing ob-gyn, located in 
Redding, Pennsylvania. I'm actually a third generation----
    The President. Have you got a health care crisis in ob-gyns in 
Redding?
    Dr. West. Yes, we do.
    The President. A leading question--I knew the answer before he said 
it. [Laughter]
    Dr. West. We actually just lost eight more people practicing 
obstetrics in our hospital as of January 1.
    The President. We've got a serious national problem. The Senate 
needs to get rid of all this, you know, politics, and focus on solving 
this problem. Different subject--go ahead. Sorry about that.

[Dr. Bill West, Jr., president and founder, First HSA, LLC, made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. So, like, you're making the pitch, what do you tell 
people about HSAs?
    Dr. West. They are not just for the healthy and wealthy; they work 
for everyone--including the chronically ill. They make total sense for 
everyone out there. It truly is consumerism.
    The President. Tell people why.
    Dr. West. Well, basically, you know, right now in the physician 
marketplace, there is no consumerism. People don't know what the cost of 
services are, and I don't know what the cost of services are. I might 
prescribe a drug that I have no clue it costs $20 a tablet, and it's 
taken every 4 hours. A one-week prescription could cost $600. Why don't 
I know that? Because I'm not paying for it. And usually the patient is 
not paying for it, because all they have is a co-pay.
    That's the problem with the third-party system. We have a disconnect 
between the patient, the provider, and the true cost of those health 
care services. Health savings accounts reconnect the patient and the 
provider with the true cost. And we start to make wise decisions. We 
have increased use of generic medications. We shop around for services. 
Maybe an MRI costs a little bit more at this hospital versus that 
hospital. And we start to use----
    The President. Just to make sure everybody understands--a health 
savings account is a combination of a high-deductible, catastrophic 
plan, and the deductible is a cash account that earns interest-free. And 
the cash account is--as you'll hear later on--can be contributed by the 
individual, contributed by the company, can be contributed a combination 
of the worker and the company, can be contributed all different ways. 
But the shopping around is for the cash portion of a person's account.

[[Page 638]]

    Dr. West. Absolutely. At First HSA, we provide a checking account 
which allows unlimited checkbook and Visa debit card access to the 
funds. Clients get monthly statements; they get the IRS reporting; they 
have 24-hour telephone banking. And they earn interest on the accounts, 
and those unused funds rollover from year to year.
    So if I had $3,000 in my account and spent 1,000, 2,000 plus 
interest rolls into the next year, and I can put an additional 3,000 in 
the following year.
    The President. What is important for people to understand is that 
when you combine the cash contribution plus the premium for the high-
deductible insurance, it's less cost than the current insurance plans. 
That's important for people to understand. That's why we keep--I urge 
people to take a look. I mean, this is a cost-savings measure that has 
the additional benefit of connecting the consumer to the provider.
    Dr. West. Absolutely. And the consumer benefits from healthy 
lifestyle choices, as you stated earlier, and they financially benefit 
from that. As a physician, many times patients will come to me to want 
to stop smoking, and I'll write a prescription to stop smoking. The 
first question they're going to ask me is, ``Does my health insurance 
plan cover that?'' If the answer is no, they hand the prescription back 
to me, because they're not financially incentivized to do that. In a 
health savings account, they take that prescription, they go get it 
filled, and they stop smoking, because they're the ones who are going to 
benefit from that healthy lifestyle.
    The President. And they benefit because they don't spend--ultimately 
spend money on disease that would drain their savings account. The 
important thing for people to understand when they listen to the health 
savings account discussion is that the savings account is owned by the 
individual, and if a person changed jobs, for example, the savings 
account goes with the person. It's a part of a person's asset base. It 
is an integral part of a person's--and will be an integral part of a lot 
of people's future, to have this money stored up for health care needs, 
coupled with a high-deductible catastrophic plan in case something 
disastrous happens.
    How's your business going?
    Dr. West. It's been phenomenal. There's been exponential growth. I 
also wanted to let you know that we actually got a union to go 100-
percent HSA as one of our clients, and they love the plan. They're 
really--our clients range from professionals to unions to formerly 
unemployed, uninsured workers, sole proprietors, entrepreneurs. We have 
them all.

[Dr. West made further remarks.]

    The President. Information keeps people involved. Information is an 
integral part of consumers making rational decisions and choices.
    Dr. West. Absolutely. We've developed a personal electronic health 
record, where they can take this health record with them from doctor to 
doctor, so they have improved quality.
    The President. Explain to people what a personal health record is--
an electronic personal health record.
    Dr. West. Basically, online, what they have access to is, they can 
put in all their personal health care information--all their diseases, 
their medications, past family history, social history--all those things 
are in the health record. They then can print it out and take that with 
them or put it onto their PDA or whatever, and take that with them to 
the doctor's office. Many times, when we first come into the doctor's 
office, what do we do? We have to fill out a new form saying, here's all 
my medical----
    The President. Unless you're not a very good writer.

[Dr. West made further remarks.]

    The President. Things are changing. I think if you listen carefully 
to the doc, he's describing a different approach to health care that is 
consumer-centered. Now you've got to--in order to accept that as a 
rational way of approaching health care, you've got to trust people to 
make rational decisions. And I think our society should. I think the 
Federal Government should trust people to make good decisions. And, 
amazingly, what happens when that starts to happen is, you start seeing 
the rapid increase of price in health care begin to decline and people 
watching their--how they treat their bodies better.

[[Page 639]]

    So thanks, doc. Thanks for being----
    Dr. West. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thanks for coming.
    Greg?
    Greg Gravel. Good morning, Mr. President. Thank you. My name is Greg 
Gravel. I'm the president and chief executive officer of the Whitney 
Center.

[Mr. Gravel made brief remarks.]

    The President. The Whitney Center, like you told me earlier, Aunt 
Marge?
    Mr. Gravel. Absolutely.
    The President. My grandfather's sister was----
    Mr. Gravel. We go back a long ways, sir.

[Mr. Gravel made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Gravel. We front-ended part of the HSA plan for our employees 
and continue to do so today.
    The President. Tell everyone what that means.
    Mr. Gravel. We actually put money into their account. As long as the 
employee were to contribute a like amount, we put $520 a year into their 
health savings account.
    The President. Right, so in this case, the deductibility is 1,040--
--
    Mr. Gravel. Correct.
    The President.  Cash into the account that will earn interest tax-
free, be withdrawn tax-free, was 1,040, half of which you paid and half 
of which the employee paid.
    Mr. Gravel. Correct. Correct.

[Mr. Gravel made further remarks.]

    The President. What's the premium on the high-risk deductible plan?
    Mr. Gravel. It's about $4,500 for a single covered employee. The 
difference between 2004 and 2005, we were able to save $78,000 in our 
premiums; 2005 to 2006, we saw a 1.8 percent increase--1.8 percent, not 
point--not one-eight--not 18 percent but 1.8 percent increase in our 
premium. When is the last time you have heard of your health care 
premium increasing by as little as that amount?

[Mr. Gravel made further remarks.]

    The President. Good. Lin works with you?
    Mr. Gravel. Absolutely.
    Lin Onorato. My name is Lin Onorato. I am the assistant director of 
dining services at the Whitney Center. I am an HSA participant. I have a 
family plan.

[Mrs. Onorato made brief remarks.]

    The President. Let me ask you something. People would say, well, you 
know, you can't possibly make rational decisions. I presume that, kind 
of, entering in the marketplace as a shopper, consumer is a little 
daunting at first----
    Mrs. Onorato. Definitely.
    The President. ----but when somebody is listening out there that 
says, ``I wonder if I ought to try this,'' how would you encourage--I 
mean, obviously you're confident enough to talk about it sitting up here 
with the President--[laughter]--and you've gained a certain amount of 
experience in the process. What would you recommend to somebody who 
says, ``Well, I don't think I've got the capacity to go out and find out 
what's available''?
    Mrs. Onorato. It's real easy. You get from--we use ConnectiCare, and 
they give us their provider book, and you can go through, and you can 
ask your doctor questions and, ``How much will this cost?'' And you can 
call up different people and get the best price for your money without 
compromising quality.
    The President. See, this is a--change is hard. The old system was, 
``Well, don't worry; somebody else will take care of it.'' There is a 
new opportunity that saves people money, actually earns people money. 
And I love the idea of Lin being able to say, ``I own my account.'' 
Notice she emphasized the $800 that was unspent in the cash portion of 
the account--say, ``It's my money; I get to roll it over.''
    If something terrible were to happen, there is an insurance policy 
to take care--it's called the catastrophic aspect of this plan. She is 
in charge of making the decisions for her family. That bothers some 
people in Washington, DC. They don't believe she's capable of doing so. 
I do. But the benefit for society as a whole--this helps control costs 
and makes health care more available and affordable.

[[Page 640]]

    And so I want to thank you for having the confidence to share this 
with us.
    Mrs. Onorato. Thank you for the opportunity.
    The President. Thank you for being here. Good job.
    Verna, are you ready?
    Verna Moran. Sure am.
    The President. Tell everybody what you do.
    Ms. Moran. First of all, I'd like to thank you for allowing me to be 
here today, Mr. President. And my name is Verna Moran. I'm vice 
president of human resources for the Seitz Corporation.

[Ms. Moran made brief remarks.]

    The President. Let me stop you right there, if you don't mind. 
Sorry.
    Ms. Moran. Sure.
    The President. A lot of business people, small-business owners, when 
they're confronted with a 25 percent increase on a relatively high base 
decide not to offer people insurance anymore. That's why a lot of our 
citizens who work for small businesses do not have insurance. It's the 
working uninsured--many of the working uninsured are employees of the 
small-business company.
    What's important, however, is that 70 percent of new jobs in America 
are created by small-business owners. And therefore, if our small-
business sector is weakened because of rising health care costs, it 
makes this country less competitive.
    Sorry to interrupt.
    Ms. Moran. Not at all. And with the 25 percent--you can interrupt 
any time. [Laughter]
    The President. Maybe here but not at the house. [Laughter]

[Ms. Moran made further remarks.]

    The President. The combination of the high-risk deductible--premium 
on the high-risk deductible, relative to their cost last year, enabled 
the savings from their cost last year to be--this company to contribute 
100 percent of the cash portion of the health savings accounts for their 
employee.
    Ms. Moran. Correct.
    The President. It's a pretty strong benefit for a small company to 
be able to do.

[Ms. Moran made further remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Ms. Moran. So a healthy employee could, in fact, at the end of the 
year, have their whole deductible be rolled over in a future year.
    The President. And it's their money.
    Ms. Moran. And it's their money.

[Ms. Moran made further remarks.]

    The President. It's an amazing story, isn't it? One hundred seventy-
five employees?
    Ms. Moran. One hundred fifty employees, yes.
    The President. One hundred fifty employees, I just increased it a 
little bit. [Laughter]
    Ms. Moran. Well, that's all right, because we plan to increase, so 
that's okay. [Laughter]
    The President. Oh, that's good. That's interesting. I bet you're 
more confident about expanding because all of a sudden, you've got a 
better handle on your health care costs.
    Ms. Moran. Exactly.
    The President. And I really strongly urge small-business owners to 
look at these products. And I find it amazing that Verna is able to 
describe a plan that is very innovative, employee-centered, and yet at 
the same time, she can say that we've saved money for the company.
    Ms. Onorato. Absolutely.
    The President. Good job.
    Ms. Onorato. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
    The President. We've come to describe one way to approach health 
care. And it is to take care of the elderly and the poor and to 
encourage our fellow citizens to become directly involved in making 
health care decisions.
    I urge the Congress to look at ways to strengthen health savings 
accounts by making the tax deductibility fair, by expanding the size of 
the contribution levels that people can make, by making sure that health 
savings accounts are as portable as they possibly can be so that the 
worker, if he or she chooses to change jobs, can take the full account--
insurance plus the savings--with him or her to a new job.

[[Page 641]]

    The United States of America is constantly faced with different 
choices. And there are very important philosophical debates raging. And 
today you all heard one aspect of a very important part of a 
philosophical debate taking place, and that is how best to run the 
health care system. I've made my decision. I'm looking forward to 
continuing to have a consumer-driven system to be the heart of American 
health care.
    And I appreciate you all sharing your thoughts, and thank you all 
for letting us come and visit with you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:01 a.m. at the Playhouse on the Green. 
In his remarks, he referred to Darrell Harvey, chair, Business Council 
of Fairfield County; and Mayor John M. Fabrizi of Bridgeport, CT.