[THIS IS THE PERIODIC BRIEFING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO ITS OFFICIALS AND OTHER SUPPORTERS OF ITS HEALTH-REFORM PROGRAM. IT PROVIDES AN INSIDE LOOK AT HOW THE ADMINISTRATION IS PROMOTING ITS PLAN. THIS ITEM WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE SAME SUBJECT LINE (WITH DIFFERENT DATES) SO YOU CAN EASILY SKIP IT IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ IT. -- Steve Freedkin , LIST.HEALTHPLAN Administrator] The White House Health Care Reform Today January 10, 1994 * Let's set the record straight. There is no conflict between health care reform and welfare reform. They are intrinsically linked. Here's how: Without reform, health care costs will continue to explode and eat up our investment dollars. Without reform, people will continue to be locked in current jobs or on welfare. The bottom line: we cannot end welfare unless we also have comprehensive health care reform. Work has already begun on both. Here's the track record and what's to come: * The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). We ought to reward work over welfare. Enacted in last year's budget, the expanded EITC will ensure that any family that has a full-time worker will no longer live in poverty. Expanding the EITC represents a giant step forward in reducing the incentive to stay on welfare. * Comprehensive health care reform. Today, millions of welfare recipients stay on Medicaid -- the Federal government's health care program for the poor -- because taking a job means they will lose health benefits for themselves and their children. Comprehensive health reform will eliminate so-called "Medicaid lock" and enable people to seek jobs, secure in the knowledge that they and their children will be covered. By ensuring universal coverage, the Health Security Act provides the necessary foundation for welfare reform. * Personal responsibility. The President's welfare reform plan will include initiatives to prevent teen pregnancy, ensure that parents fulfill their child support obligations, dramatically increase paternity establishment, and try to keep people from going on welfare in the first place. The message is clear: Governments don't raise children, parents do. * Work, not welfare. The final part of the President's welfare plan will build on the Family Support Act by requiring people who can work to do so within two years, either in the private sector or community service. This includes expanding child care for working families; providing education, training, and job search and placement for those who need it; and restoring the basic social contract of providing opportunity and demanding responsibility in return. Without health care reform, a welfare reform argument carries nothing more than the weight of political rhetoric. * For those who would say there is no health care crisis in America today, we would simply disagree. Nearly 40 million Americans-- including more than 10 million children-- have no health insurance at all. Health care eats up more of our federal budget, more of our state budgets, and more of our family income every year. We are paying more and getting less as we pour money into a system that is leaking and badly broken. The President's Health Security Act solves the crisis -- guaranteeing health care that can never be taken away.