The White House
Health Care Reform Today
November 8, 1993
- On NBC's Meet the Press yesterday, President
Clinton talked about who will pay what under the Health
Security Act of 1993. He said: "Now let me say what
was wrong with the early figures where they said 40
percent of the people with insurance would pay more.
Here's what was wrong with them, why they were too high.
The people who have insurance today, We now think that
70 percent will pay the same or less for the same or
better benefits. Why did they say 60 before? Because
they neglected to calculate this: A lot of people who
have insurance don't really have it. That is, they have
$5,000 deductibles. So they're paying every year, they
just may not be paying in their insurance premium."
- "So they went back and calculated based on what
we now know about how much out-of-pocket people pay --
you have $2,500, $3,000, $5,000 deductible. That is
something they neglected to think about. So now, who
will pay more under this who has insurance already?
People who have essentially catastrophic policies, who
have very limited benefits and young single workers will
pay more because if they pay more, it will enable us to
have what's called community ratings, so that if a
working family, middle-aged working family with a sick
child can still get insurance at an affordable cost, and
all the young workers who don't have insurance will be
brought into the insurance system, and even they will
get something for it. That is, what they get for it is
knowing their insurance can never be taken away."
- "Finally, let me say this. If you look at the
experience of the last 12 years, when insurance, when
health costs really started to take off, and then you
think about what it will be like five years from now, a
hundred percent of the American people will pay more
five years from now than the rate of inflation if we
don't do something."