> > REMEMBER: *DO NOT* WRITE A *REPLY* TO ANY MESSAGE FROM > LIST.HEALTHPLAN; IT WILL GO TO THE PROGRAM THAT HANDLES > THE LIST AND WON'T BE READ. INSTEAD, ON LIST-RELATED > MATTERS, SEND NEW EMAIL TO ME: sfreedkin@igc.apc.org > MAKE SURE THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR MESSAGE HEADER IS THE > APPROPRIATE ONE FROM THE LIST SHOWN BELOW. (IF YOU DON'T > KNOW HOW TO SET THE SUBJECT LINE ASK YOUR LOCAL SYSTEM > ADMINISTRATOR.) > REMOVE LIST.HEALTHPLAN > -- to unsubscribe. **NOTE: "unsubscribe" won't work!** > EDIT LIST.HEALTHPLAN > -- to change your address. In the message body put: > REMOVE: > ADD: (Name in Parentheses) > SUBSCRIBE LIST.HEALTHPLAN > -- to subscribe (for someone who doesn't already) > SEND WELCOME LTR LIST.HEALTHPLAN > -- for complete LIST.HEALTHPLAN instructions > QUERY LIST.HEALTHPLAN > -- for any other questions regarding the list. > > > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Mayfield Heights, Ohio) ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 30, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT JOEL HYATT FOR SENATE RECEPTION Landerhaven Country Club Mayfield Heights, Ohio 8:20 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: [...] Hillary and I have had a wonderful day today. We went to Independence, Missouri, to Harry Truman's hometown. And we celebrated there the final leg of the effort to get national health reform and guaranteed health insurance for all Americans. We went there for a couple of reasons. First of all, Harry Truman tried three times -- in 1945, 1947 and 1949 -- to get guaranteed health coverage for all Americans. And it's very interesting, all the people that were ought there holding their signs and demonstrating against us today, they all think Harry Truman ought to be on Mt. Rushmore. (Laughter.) But I come from a family who was for him when he was alive. And I know that they're the same folks that tried to kill all of his reform programs back then. (Applause.) At the end of the second world war, Harry Truman was at 80 percent in the public opinion polls. By the time he sent the health care reform to Congress for the second time, he had been driven down to 36 percent and was going lower because of all the hatred and venom and misinformation put out about him and his program. They said, this is socialized government, socialized medicine, big government run amuck. Do you know what it was? He was asking for private health insurance for all Americans. And we're going through the same fight today, 50 years later. In the middle, President Johnson came 29 years ago this day -- this exact day, President Johnson went to Independence, Missouri, to sign Medicare and to give Harry and Bess Truman Medicare cards numbers one and two. (Applause.) It took that long to guarantee health care to the elderly of this country. And I couldn't help thinking, I wonder how many people out there today, with their right-wing extreme signs and all their harsh slogans, have parents who, thank God, are healthier because of Medicare, and who have, therefore, avoided bankrupting their children because of Medicare. I say that to make this point. There is something about this time that matters that is far more important even than the specific things we are about. Because we have come to the end of one era and we are starting another, and we have to decide again what kind of people we are and what we're going to do. [...] There have been some issues on which we have received some bipartisan help, and for that I am very grateful. I would love it if it happened on every issue. But when it comes to pivotal issues like health care, I can do no better than the distinguished Republican Congressman from Iowa, Fred Grandy, who complained the other day that the Republicans had been ordered not to cooperate with the administration to try to achieve our common goal of universal health care for all Americans. I don't care whether people are Republicans or Democrats. I don't even care how they're going to vote in the next election. I think they all ought to have health care, even if they ought to change their politics. This is not a political issue, it's an American issue. We cannot solve it without American doers in the United States Congress. (Applause.) [...] And for the first time in history, we will now have -- we now have on the floor of the Congress -- the first time in history on the floor of both the Senate and House there bills that would guarantee health care to all Americans. And I want to say this, just this, in closing: We have waiting 60 years through presidents of both parties to try to figure out a way to cover every American. We are the only major country in the world that not only does not provide coverage for all American working families, we are going in reverse. Ten years ago 88 percent of our people were insured; today only 83 percent are. Five years ago, there were 5 million more Americans with health insurance than have it today -- 5 million Americans living and working in the United States of America today had health insurance five years ago and do not have it today. And what's worse is we know what works. We know that the simplest, easiest thing to do is to ask employers and employees to share the responsibility of buying private insurance. We know it works from looking at other countries. I just came back from Germany. I met with hundreds of military families who are coming home. The only issue they said was, Mr. President, don't let us come home to an America without health care for our children. We've been covered in the military; we see how it works in Germany. In Germany, everybody pays; everybody's covered; it's a world-class health care system. They've got world-class pharmaceuticals. They spend 8.5 percent of their income to cover everybody. We spend over 14 percent of our income to cover 83 percent and leave one in six Americans uncovered. I think we can do better. But the best example is close to home. For 20 years Hawaii -- Hawaii has covered everybody. Now, if you've ever been to Hawaii, you know everything in Hawaii is more expensive than it is on the mainland, except health care -- where small businesses pay rates that are 30 percent lower than any other place. Why? Because if everybody has to pay their fair share -- if everybody has to pay their fair share, then you have everybody doing what's happened in this Cleveland Business Partnership here, where small businesses have been able to buy cheaper insur- ance. Insurance goes down for everybody and coverage goes up. If you just try to reform the insurance system, insurance rates go up if you put more sick people in -- people stop covering, the pool gets smaller, and the rates go up again. Why should we not simply do what works? (Applause.) And I want to close with this: This should not be a political thing. In 1971, the President of the United States, Richard Nixon and the man who is now the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Robert Packwood from Oregon, introduced a bill that required employers and employees to split the cost of health care to cover everybody. So I say to the Republicans in the Congress, let's have a bipartisan American solution. You go back to where Richard Nixon was 23 years ago. I'll meet you halfway, and we'll take care of the American people with people like Joel Hyatt in the Senate. (Applause.) Thank you very much, and God bless you all. (Applause.) END 8:44 P.M. EDT