> I HAVE EXCERPTED ONLY THE HEALTH-REFORM PORTIONS OF THIS SPEECH. > -- STEVE FREEDKIN , LIST.HEALTHPLAN MANAGER > > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 6, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT "MICHIGAN SALUTES THE PRESIDENT" RECEPTION Westin Hotel Detroit, Michigan 6:08 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: [...] In 1943, Congressman Dingell's father introduced the first bill to provide affordable health care to all Americans. In 1945, '47 and '49, Harry Truman tried to do it. And now, here we are in 1994. We're the only country in the world with an advanced economy that doesn't provide health care to everybody. You've got the automobile industry in Michigan losing jobs and market share because they got $1,000 in every car in health care, and they're paying for the cost of people who won't even pay their own way. There are 5 million working people in America, almost all of them working people and their children who had health insurance five years ago who don't have it today; we're going in reverse. We have a clear example in the State of Hawaii where, for 20 years, the employers and employees have all had to buy health insurance, where small businesses have premiums that are 30 percent below the national average. People are healthier, they're doing better, and the small business community is doing better. And we are determined to see that we do not walk away from this. Let me tell you -- when we started this health care debate, there were two dozen senators from the other party on a bill that would provide health care to all Americans. Today, there are zero there. Every time we have moved dto them, they have run the other way. It is time to stop playing politics with the health care of the people of the United States of America. (Applause.) Now, I knew we had to make some changes in our plan, and we did. We made it less bureaucratic, more voluntary, gave bigger breaks to small business, and we phase it in over a longer period of time. That's what the bills now before Congress do. But the issue is this: Are we going to keep spending more than everybody else and getting less for it, or are we going to continue to let more and more money go to insurance companies and bureaucracies instead of to keep people healthy, or are we going to run the risk of imperiling this fabulous recovery in the auto industry and this recovery in the economy, or are we going to keep punishing the small businesspeople who do provide health insurance, or are we going to do what's right for the American people? That is the issue. It should not be a partisan political issue in this election year. We ought to forget about the election and remember the people who elected us in the first place and take care of their needs. (Applause.) [...] Thank you, and God bless you. (Applause.) END 6:21 P.M. EDT