> > THE FOLLOWING IS *EXCERPTED* FROM A SPEECH BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AT > A FUNDRAISER FOR THE DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE. I AM > PROVIDING JUST THE SECTIONS RELATED TO HEALTH CARE. > > NOTE: *NEVER* WRITE A REPLY TO A LIST.HEALTHPLAN ITEM, AND NEVER > WRITE TO THE ADDRESS SHOWN AS THE SENDER ('NOTES' OR 'HEALTHPLAN'); > SUCH MAIL JUST GOES TO A SOFTWARE PROGRAM. ANY CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT > YOUR LIST.HEALTHPLAN SUBSCRIPTION SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO ME AND HAVE > ONE OF THESE SUBJECT LINES IN THE MESSAGE HEADER: > REMOVE LIST.HEALTHPLAN SUBSCRIBE LIST.HEALTHPLAN > EDIT LIST.HEALTHPLAN SEND WELCOME LTR LIST.HEALTHPLAN > QUERY LIST.HEALTHPLAN COMMENT LIST.HEALTHPLAN > > -- STEVE FREEDKIN , LIST.HEALTHPLAN MANAGER > (Send me a message with the Subject: SEND WELCOME LTR LIST.HEALTHPLAN > to get complete instructions for using LIST.HEALTHPLAN.) > > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 9, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT FUNDRAISER FOR DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Hyatt Regency Hotel August 8, 1994 7:54 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Graham. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you'll forgive me. I have my annual August ragweed voice. (Laughter.) If you don't have allergies and you can't tell whether ragweed has come out in Washington, D.C., you just wait for me to get my sort of, you know, raspy -- surely there's a role for me in the movies when I talk like this. (Laughter.) I could be the guy that delivers the bad news, and that wouldn't be any role change I would have to take. (Laughter.) [...] You have to decide what the purpose of your public life is. Is it to do things that genuinely respond to the needs of people, or is it to posture? You remember one of the Republican House members that's leaving the House -- Fred Grandy said the other day that his colleagues had been told not to work with us on health care. Senator Dole was quoted a few weeks ago as saying, well, he understood that some of the Republican senators wanted to work with us on health care and work something out, but, "I've got a party to think of." [...] In the health care debate, we have on the floor of both houses of Congress, for the first time in the history of the Republic, bills that would provide health care to all Americans -- never been done before; never even got on the floor before. And yes, there's a lot of controversy about it. There's a lot of information and a lot of misinformation, some genuine difference of opinion. But we do know some things about which there is no dispute. And the burden should be, therefore, on those who have no plan. We know we spend more on health care than anybody else -- 40 percent more of our income. We know that even though we do that, we're the only country in the world with an advanced economy that hasn't figured out how to cover everybody. We know that we're the only country going in reverse -- there are 5 million Americans today, almost all of them working Americans and their children, who don't have insurance, who did have insurance just five years ago. That's not happening anywhere else in the world; only here. So by what reasoning is it that we say, this is good that we spend 40 percent more than anybody else, do less, we're the only ones losing ground and we spend billions and billions on paperwork, bureaucracy and administrative costs that no one else spends. We say we are a pragmatic people. But we know that in Hawaii, small business insurance rates are 30 percent lower than the rest of the country because everybody's covered and everybody bears some of the burden. Should we try something else? I'm willing to try something else for four or five years. I think it ought to be phased in. I think we ought to be careful. I think we ought to give the market a chance to work. But I think we also should not walk away from what we know works. The main thing I want to tell you is this. When we enter this debate, what I hope it will be about is the health care of the American people -- their pocketbooks, the pocketbook of the federal government, the quality of care, the ability to choose your doctors, and the ability to meet the legitimate needs of middle-class working people, and not politics. Last week -- and this is a story I want to end with -- I had the honor of doing something that Presidents have done for 44 years; that is to present awards every year, with the Attorney General, to four young Americans who have either shown great heroism or great public service. One of the public service winners was a young woman from Keyes, Oklahoma, who was paralyzed in 1990 from the chest down in a car accident; and since then has spent her time trying to organize children not to drink and drive, not to ride with people who drink and drive, and always to wear their seatbelts. In other words, instead of being bitter, this beautiful child is trying to make sure other people don't have the experience she did. And so there I was, just totally captivated with this young woman and her little sister and her fine father and mother. And her daddy was a farmer from Keyes, Oklahoma -- way out in Western Oklahoma. And we just got to talking about health care. And he said, you know, I was paying $3,400 a year for a limited policy, and my daughter's bills -- they were all over two years ago, we hadn't had any bills in two years. But they told me I had used up my wellness quotient, and my premium is going to $9,600 in two weeks. So in two weeks, we'll be out of insurance. And he said -- he tickled me -- he said, it's not a political deal, he said, I'm a Republican, Mr. President. But he said, if somebody's working as hard as I'm working and can't even have health insurance for their kids, something is wrong somewhere. And so, as we begin this debate, there are legitimate differences of approach. I welcome them. Nobody's smart enough to know everything about this issue. But let us remember that farmer from Keyes, Oklahoma, and his fine wife and his two beautiful daughters, and ask ourselves, how will he send them to college if he can't even pay their health insurance? [...] Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.) END 8:14 P.M. EDT