> > 1. 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 cancel your subscription. > **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. > > 2. I HAVE EXCERPTED THE FOLLOWING TO INCLUDE ONLY THOSE > PORTIONS RELATED TO HEALTH-CARE REFORM. > > 3. I AM LOOKING FOR SUPPORTERS OF CALIFORNIA'S SINGLE-PAYER > HEALTH CARE INITIATIVE WHO LIVE/WORK IN SANTA BARBARA AND > VENTURA COUNTIES, CA. IF THAT'S YOU, PLEASE EMAIL ME, > USING THE SUBJECT: SINGLE PAYER SUPPORTER. THANKS! > > -- STEVE FREEDKIN > > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 4, 1994 BRIEFING BY PRESS SECRETARY DEE DEE MYERS The Briefing Room 2:25 P.M. EDT [...] Q Isn't there some risk that by raising the Mitchell bill, the Senate version, that the President is undercutting efforts in the House to get a much stronger health care bill that includes a full mandate? MS. MYERS: Well, certainly, the President wants to see as strong as possible health care bill passed. But he does believe both the version introduced in the Senate and the version introduced in the House meet his ultimate objective, which is universal coverage. There is a long legislative process in front of us. There will be much negotiating on the floors of both the House and the Senate and we'll see what the final bill looks like. The President will continue to urge that the Congress pass a bill that guarantees universal coverage, contains costs and maintains the quality and choice that the American people are used to and deserve. Q When the President did his half-a-loaf answer about insurance reforms and how that wouldn't get you to where you needed to be and if you just did insurance reforms how more people would drop out because only the sick would come and everyone's rates would go up, how is that different than what the Mitchell bill is going to do? Because the President even admitted himself that the Mitchell bill relies on the market reforms first and then it -- how are the reforms different from the Mitchell bill? Why does he support it? MS. MYERS: There are subsidies, ways to help small businesses and individuals who might not otherwise be able to afford it to opt into the system. And then if these voluntary measures do not get you to at least 95 percent by the year 2000, then there are additional steps that kick in. If by 2000 we're below 95 percent, there will be a commission that will make recommendations to the Congress, the Congress will be forced to act. And if the Congress does not take any other action to get us to universal coverage, then an employer mandate will kick in where responsibility will be shared 50-50 between employers and employees. So there are additional measures as well as back up measures to make sure that we do get to universal. Q To follow on that, though, how can you guarantee in the first five to six to seven years of the Mitchell plan that exactly what the President fears on insurance reforms will not happen? That rates -- if you're going to be community rating and going to have young healthy people having their premiums go up but there's no mandate, why won't they drop out of the next five years? MS. MYERS: Well, again, there will be subsidies there that will help people -- small businesses and individuals who might not otherwise be able to afford it -- to get into the system. There will be provisions particularly to help pregnant women and children into the system early, that's something that's included in the Mitchell bill. And the bottom line is that if the reforms don't work, the bill contains additional measures to make sure that additional steps are taken to get us to universal. So, one, there are additional measures besides simply insurance market reforms. And, two, there are guarantees that are built into the program for exactly that reason, to make sure that if we don't get everybody into the system that there is a backup mechanism that will guarantee that that happens. Q Dee Dee, what is the President trying to accomplish with the combination of the nightly two-minute DNC ads, the other kind of events that he's scheduled? Who's he trying to reach and what's he trying to accomplish? MS. MYERS: I think the President's trying to speak directly to the American people. There has been an incredible amount of information and misinformation around the issue of health care over the months. More money has been spent on this issue than on any other issue of public policy perhaps in history. And I think what the President seeks to do tonight is speak directly to the American people about what's at stake, about the importance of passing these measures, about the importance of continuing to work to press Congress to get this done. So he'll do that every night, or at least most nights until the Senate takes action. Q What does he want to do about people who don't subscribe to cable TV? MS. MYERS: Well, that's a good point. I mean, origin- ally, we did approach the broadcast networks, and we were turned down. So what we've done is a combination of newspaper ads, radio ads in all 50 states, and two minutes per night on CNN. Fortunately, cable has reached a majority of American households now, but we would have certainly looked at other options, had they been open to us. [...] Q You're saying the nets wouldn't sell you the time? MS. MYERS: Correct. And just to be clear for legal purposes, it is the DNC who is paying for this. Q Do you know what it cost? MS. MYERS: The budget's roughly $1 million. That includes the radio ads -- it's slightly under $1 million. The radio ads, the TV ads, and the newspaper ads. Q You're counting a lot on this backup mandate in the Mitchell bill. The states have tried to pass bills that have mandates sometime in the future, like Massachusetts did. And, mysteriously, these back-up future mandates never appear. And given that you've said that universal coverage is an economic argument -- in other words, with- out it, none of the other reforms work -- how can you be sure that that backup is going to kick in, since it's been the experience of states that have tried this delayed approach that it hasn't kicked in? MS. MYERS: I'm not familiar with specifically how the state structured it. But it would be written into law that, if by the year 2000, we did not get to 95 percent that other steps would have to be taken. And if we go to 95 percent, the additional steps would be looked at, the commission would make recommendations, which I think you're all familiar with. I think that is a bill that will be written into law. You can never guarantee that a legislative body won't go back and change its mind. I don't think -- you could never guarantee that if we passed a bill that mandated universal coverage. So -- but I do think that if a bill is passed into law that requires additional steps to be taken, that those steps will be taken. I mean, generally, that's -- I think that's true of any legislative matter that is passed. [...] Q Dee Dee, could you tell us who he's talking to on health care today -- members? MS. MYERS: Well, he is talking to some members of Congress. We've made it our practice not to announce those in advance. If members choose to, they come out to the stake out afterwards; many of them do. But there are two or three meetings -- one-on-one meetings with members of Congress to talk about health care. Q Can you tell us so we know when to look for something? MS. MYERS: It's late afternoon and then one in the early evening. Q Can you give us a time? MS. MYERS: No, I'm not going to give you the exact times, but -- Q Are they undecided members, or are they all for it? MS. MYERS: It depends. I mean, it will depend on a day-to-day basis. I think he'll meet with a variety of members to discuss whatever their concerns are. And I think different members will have different concerns. Q Can you tell us if it's the leadership at all? MS. MYERS: I don't believe so today. [...] Q Dee Dee, back on the paid political announcement tonight -- do you have any numbers to back up the President's assertion tonight that never in the history of the country has such a big campaign been launched to kill or defeat an initiative like health care reform? MS. MYERS: I don't know if we have a dollar-by-dollar breakdown; I can check and see. But certainly that is the opinion. There was the one study by -- what was it? Anyway, there's one study out there which -- Q Annenberg's -- MS. MYERS: Yes, Annenberg's study, which characterized it as such. Other people -- Kathleen Hall Jamison and others who are close watchers of this that have written books on it have certainly characterized it that way. I don't think we have any independent studies, but there have been numerous reports that suggest that that's true. Q Senator Gramm again today, and Senator Dole had a news conference. And they're once again insisting that the Mitchell bill contains 17 new taxes, 32 new bureaucracies, is basically government-run health care. MS. MYERS: That's ridiculous. It's just not true. And I would challenge them to produce a list of 17 new taxes. At the same time, I would challenge them to explain how this is a government-run health care system. What this does is build on the current system of private health insurance. It relies in the early stages mostly on market reforms with some subsidies, which I think many of those -- some subsidies were included in Senator Dole's plan, which we're still waiting for him to turn into legislation. And should we fail to get to 95 percent, the commission will make recommendations. And an employer mandate would require not that government provide insurance, but that employers provide insurance, which builds on the employer-based private system that we have today. So I fail to understand Senators Gramm and Dole's definition of big government system. This builds on the current system, which I don't think they would describe as government system. Q Is there any realistic chance that one Republican in the Senate would support the Mitchell bill? MS. MYERS: I certainly hope so. I mean, as you know, there have been a number of Republican senators, including Senator Dole, who have repeatedly -- until recently -- repeatedly insisted that what we need is universal coverage. And you can go back -- and I have a list if anyone's interested -- of times that Senator Dole has come out and said, I think we can get a bipartisan bill that will include universal coverage. He said that as early as, I think, the winter of this year. We're hopeful that there are a number of Republican senators who have been fighting for years for genuine reform. The President and many of those senators believe the only way you get genuine and meaningful reform is by covering everybody. So I think the President remains hopeful that we will have a bipartisan bill. He's worked for that; I think he's come that extra mile to find a bill that will be acceptable to both sides of the aisle. And every time, as he's said, every time he steps forward, they step back. And I think that's too bad. Q What did he say in the Cabinet meeting this morning about a one-vote strictly Democratic majority, as was the case last year with the economic plan? Would he be willing to go for that this year? MS. MYERS: Well, I think we'll have to wait and see. I think what he wants to do is get a bipartisan bill. I think he'll fight to pass health care however that is possible, but I think it has been and remains his objective to have a bipartisan bill. Certainly, again,there are a lot of Republicans who have been fighting for genuine health care reform for a long time. A lot of them -- Senator Packwood goes back 20 years when he introduced -- and introduced, I guess, last year a bill that included a universal coverage through an employer mandate with a 75- 25 split. I guess he says now he's changed his mind, but after 20 years of fighting for health care reform that includes universal coverage, I think that's too bad. Q So if necessary he will go for the same kind of strategy as he got on the economic bill even though at the end of that, as you will recall, he said he never again wanted to go through that kind of partisan battle again? MS. MYERS: Well, I don't -- he wouldn't necessarily choose to do that, but certainly wouldn't -- the President is committed to passing health care reform, and he will do that by whatever means is necessary. But I think the bottom line is that he remains committed to a bipartisan bill. Q On abortion, is the President still solid on abortion coverage as being a part of a bill? MS. MYERS: There's been no change in his position on that. He introduced a plan that included coverage of pregnancy-related ser- vices which is -- as you know, most health care plans, about 70 percent of health care plans include that now. It is something that will have to be worked out, however, between the House and the Senate. It is something that there is not universal agreement on. [...] Q Until fairly recently the President said that the health care security act that he proposed and that the health care task force worked on was the best plan for reform. And last night he talked about the Democratic bills, plans in both the House and Senate as not just acceptable alternatives but in fact better than his plan in several ways and he gave examples. Why did he not, after all the work the task force worked on, adopt some of the proposals that the House and Senate are now putting forward as part of his plan after all the work that went on? MS. MYERS: Well, I think certainly members of Congress who have been working on health care reform for years and years have their own ideas and certainly were able to put forward some suggestions to improve the bill. What the President has said is that the current proposal -- that he'd listen to members of Congress and to the American people and came up with a health care, or now supports health care plan that is less bureaucratic, that is more streamlined than the bill that he introduced. The main elements of his bill he stands by. He still be- lieves, for example, that an employer mandate is the best way to get to universal coverage. Nobody has shown him a better way. He's willing to try market reforms first, but only with the guarantee that if that doesn't get you to universal health care that there is a backup plan. Q Is he, in fact, though, saying that the work of the Health Care Task Force failed to take into account some of the experience that Congress has? MS. MYERS: No. I think the Health Care Task Force was broadly based, but I don't think even a very comprehensive, well- meaning and intelligent effort can have all the best ideas. I don't think this president or this White House believes that we have the corner on good ideas. The President said when he introduced it he'd be willing to look at ways to improve it or make it better. He meant it. He looked at ways, decided that there were ways to improve. He did that, but I think the fundamental bottom-line elements of the bill he believes are critical, and I think he believes that the plan he put forward was the best way to get there including the shared responsibility or employer mandate. [...] Q Tomorrow night is a DSCC ad, too, right? MS. MYERS: Yes. Tomorrow night, Saturday night, Sunday night, Monday night. I think through the weekend. Q Different ads? MS. MYERS: Each one will be different. Q Have you produced them already? Are they in the can? MS. MYERS: No, no. Q He's not doing them live, though, is he? MS. MYERS: No, he'll be taping them depending on the situation. Today's was taped. He's doing another taping today. They'll run at 7:50 p.m. Eastern time but they'll run simultaneously across the country so, in other words, it will be 4:50 p.m. Pacific time. Q Any travel likely next week -- MS. MYERS: And in Hawaii, where they have universal health care, it will be at 1:50 p.m. (Laughter.) Q Any travel at all likely next week? MS. MYERS: Not that I know of. Q What time will it be on in Guam? (Laughter.) MS. MYERS: That's a good question. Some time before 1:30 p.m. Q (inaudible) -- MS. MYERS: We're still looking into that. Q What was the question? MS. MYERS: The question was can we get the scripts embargoed the evening before. I think I haven't gotten an answer to that yet. Q Any chance the Stones will come later? MS. MYERS: I think that the contingent of Stones that was coming has come. Q Who was that? MS. MYERS: None of the band members, but there were other people who work with the band. Q Is the White House being snubbed -- (laughter.) THE PRESS: Thank you. END 2:55 P.M. EDT