> > I HAVE PROVIDED ONLY THE HEALTH-CARE RELATED PORTIONS OF THIS > TRANSCRIPT (AND A BIT OF HUMOR AT THE END). > > -- STEVE FREEDKIN > LIST.HEALTHPLAN ADMINISTRATOR > > > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 2, 1994 PRESS BRIEFING BY DEE DEE MYERS The Briefing Room 2:20 P.M. EDT [...] Q Do you have any concerns that the -- on the subject of health care -- that the Senate bill that Senator Mitchell is introducing today will undercut attempts in the House to get more expanded coverage and employer mandates? MS. MYERS: From everything -- I think Senator Mitchell is scheduled to do his press conference at what -- 3:00 p.m. -- and I think all expectations are that his bill will include universal coverage through employer mandates somewhere down the line. Q But it's triggered down the road and it's a soft trigger and it's not nearly what the House bill is. MS. MYERS: I don't know if it's a soft trigger. I haven't seen the final language; I think it's a fairly hard trigger. But I think that it is now up to the various -- to the two Houses to pass the various versions of their bills and then to work it out in conference. I think what's most important, and what the President is very gratified about, is that both bills contain commitment to universal coverage, cost containment, and they both preserve choice and quality within the system. Q If you were a House member, why would you go to the well and vote for employer mandates against the opposition of lobbyists in your district when the Senate is taking a dive on that? MS. MYERS: Well, I think we'll have to let the legislative process play itself out here. I think clearly there will be some byplay, some back and forth between the House and the Senate as the decisions about when and what to vote on first are reached. And I think we'll have to wait until next week to see exactly how the votes are scheduled. I think Senator Mitchell said he expected the first votes on his bill could come as early as the middle of next week. And I think that certainly there will be an attempt by both Houses and whatever extent we can help do that to facilitate voting in both Houses and reach some kind of a mutually acceptable bills in both Houses that can lead to a conference report that will pass. Q Is retaining some form of employer mandate critical to the President's support for the Mitchell plan? MS. MYERS: What is critical to the President is universal coverage. And what he has said is that nobody has shown him a way to get to universal coverage other than some kind of a shared responsibility between employers and employees. As he's said all along, he'd be open to looking at other ways to get there. But nobody's been able to show him one other than an employer mandate or some kind of shared responsibility. That builds on the current system -- the current private sector system that we have now; it is the least disruptive; and it does get you to universal. So we'll see exactly what's in Senator Mitchell's bill. But certainly, from all of his conversations with the President, between the President and Senator Mitchell, I think the President believes the Senator is going to produce a bill that he will be able to support. Q Dee Dee, the Whitewater hearings are going on just as health care is really reaching the crescendo here. What is the White House understanding of the impact that these hearings will have on the health care debate? MS. MYERS: Well, I think first, as the President has made clear, everybody here has done everything they can to cooperate with the ongoing congressional inquiries. But I think that the general public and certainly people that are here are much more engaged in the debate and the battle to win passage of health care reform. That is one of the President's -- it is his primary domestic policy goal this year. It is one of the things that he ran for President to achieve. It is certainly much more important in terms of the future of this country than the ongoing hearings. We'll continue to cooperate; we'll do everything we can to make sure that we provide the documents and the individuals that the Senate and the House request. But it's not going to interfere with our fight to pass health care. I don't think it is something -- I think the American people are much more interested in knowing whether or not they'll be able to keep their health care if their child gets sick or they change jobs or they move, than in additional information that's already been explored by three separate inquiries; although, certainly, we will continue to cooperate. [...] Q Several questions on the press conference tomorrow night. Did the White House originally want to do an address to the nation as opposed to a press conference? MS. MYERS: No, it was always envisioned as a press conference -- well, actually, I shouldn't say that. I'm confusing two topics in my own head. We discussed a number of things on health care, but decided to do a press conference. Q You weren't turned down, you just decided press conference instead. Is that correct? MS. MYERS: Yes. We sort of discussed a number of options and decided that this was the best way to go for a couple of reasons. One, I think we're at a critical point in the debate on health care, and it's an opportunity for the President to talk directly to the American people about that. It's also been a while since we've had an open-ended press conference where you all could ask questions about anything that was on your minds, and I think there's a lot of things out there on both foreign and domestic policy that you might have questions about. Q Are all the networks going to cover it as far as you know -- MS. MYERS: They've certainly been notified. We're hopeful, but they don't make commitments and we certainly aren't able to request them. Q Is this basically a health care press conference from the President's point of view, or will he talk about something on Haiti in particular or -- MS. MYERS: No, it's not on Haiti. I think there's been some misinformation to that end out there. He will open with a brief statement, probably around five minutes, where he will focus on health care, but will probably also touch on crime -- especially if, as we hope, the crime bill passes the House tomorrow, and probably the economy and the progress the economy has made in the last 18 months under the President's stewardship. And then he'll throw it open to questions which will be open-ended. [...] Q But, again, the question is, is this a critical time for this presidency? MS. MYERS: I think it is an important time for this presidency, sure. I don't think it's any secret that this President has worked and fought very hard to pass health care reform. He thinks it's critical not only to the health of individual citizens of this country, but as he made clear, important to our long-term fiscal health -- that unless you can do something to contain the costs of entitlements and the growth in entitlements which is driven in many ways by health care spending, then you can't bring the deficit down and you can't install the kind of fiscal responsibility that he thinks is critical to long-term economic health in this country. So this is a very important fight to him; there's no question about it. Q On health care, Senator Mitchell, who I believe was scheduled to unveil his bill on the Senate floor prior to his press conference at 3:00 p.m. -- are you saying that the portion of the bill that calls for everybody else to be brought -- everybody above 95 percent to be brought into as part of universal coverage sometime after 2000 meets what you have consistently said is the President's goal of a reasonable time? Has the President been told what that time frame is, he knows what it is and that's acceptable to him as a reasonable time for universal coverage? MS. MYERS: Again, I don't know if we've seen the final details of the bill, but generally, in his discussions with Senator Mitchell he has concluded that, as described, Senator Mitchell's bill is something that he could support. [...] Q The schedule for the rest of the week. [...] MS. MYERS: Correct. Tomorrow the President has no public appearances. He has a series of just meetings, internal meetings about a number of things until the press conference which is at 8:00 p.m. Again, expect about a five minute opening statement and then 25 or 30 minutes of questions. On Thursday there's a Cabinet meeting which is at 9:00 a.m. The main topic will be health care. The Cabinet, just by way of background, has been extremely active in the health care reform fight as has the President. In fact, just as a little primer, they have done in the past two weeks over 80 editorial boards, 150 radio interviews and more than 50 health care events. In the next couple of weeks I think you can expect an equally vigorous push by members of the Cabinet. So we'll see if there is going to be a pool spray at the top of that. And then at 4:00 p.m. he's doing the Young American Medals ceremony. That's it for Thursday. Friday there are no public events on the schedule. [...] Q There is this big push on health care, and there's no event Wednesday, Thursday or Friday? MS. MYERS: Well, Wednesday there's a prime-time press conference where the President will talk to potentially millions of Americans. Q No events Thursday and Friday? MS. MYERS: Nothing on Thursday at this point and on Friday we're going to focus on the economy for a day. In the meantime though I think -- [...] Q Unemployment numbers maybe? MS. MYERS: Unemployment numbers do come out on Friday. But certainly there will be a lot of other opportunities -- the Vice President is doing events; the First Lady is doing events this week on health care. Q The Vice President's in Poland. Is he doing health care -- MS. MYERS: Then he's back. I think he comes back -- he's actually in Kiev today. On Thursday the Vice President will speak to a health care rally on Capitol Hill. On Friday the First Lady will speak to Health Right, which is a health care advocates group on Capitol Hill. Today Mrs. Gore greeted the Southern and Central Express -- at the Naval Observatory this morning. The Cabinet will be fanning out all over the country. There will be no shortage of health care events, and I think the President will continue to be very involved. On Saturday night he goes to Detroit, which is a fundraiser. There will be no public events. [...] Q What happened to plans for a health care rally in Detroit on Saturday and also for the President to greet the bus people Wednesday, I think? MS. MYERS: I guess the Vice President is doing that. They're still coming here tomorrow and meeting with the First Lady. The First Lady will do that event; the President is just going to do the press conference tomorrow. And on Thursday the Vice President will do the event on Capitol Hill which the President was never scheduled to do. Q Is he trying to put some distance between himself and the bus people? MS. MYERS: I think after stops in Independence, Missouri, and yesterday in Liberty Park, New Jersey, that that's really not true. Q Will the bus people actually come here? Q The "bus people." (Laughter.) MS. MYERS: The bus people will be here tomorrow to see the First Lady. Q What about the Saturday rally in Detroit? MS. MYERS: We had talked about possibly doing an event, but I think he's just going to do the fundraiser now. Q Is it because you've seen protestors each time you've gone out? MS. MYERS: No. Q It's unrelated? MS. MYERS: No, I think there have been a minimal of protestors. At the President's events? You weren't with us on either Saturday or Monday. Q Because they were kept several blocks away. Q Plenty of people there. MS. MYERS: Well, there was plenty of our people there as well. Q Oh, it's all your people, huh? (Laughter.) Q What's the latest story on the subject of the Stones? MS. MYERS: They are not coming here today. Q Why? Q What about Thursday? MS. MYERS: Don't know. Don't know. Q Dee Dee, we heard that wild horses couldn't keep them away. (Laughter.) MS. MYERS: On that note. THE PRESS: Thank you. END 3:05 P.M. EDT