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From: White House Archives <whitehouse@calypso>
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 02:35:30 -0500

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                         THE WHITE HOUSE

                  Office of the Press Secretary
                      (Norwich, Connecticut)
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                           February 24, 1994

                     REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
           AT PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH LETTER WRITERS WHO
               WROTE TO THE HEALTH CARE TASK FORCE
	     
                           Art Gallery
                           Slater Hall
                       Norwich Free Academy
                       Norwich, Connecticut

2:00 P.M. EST
	     
	     Q	  Are you troubled at all, sir, by word coming 
off the Hill from the likes of Chairman Pete Stark that the 
employer mandates and the alliances are in trouble, that he sees 
little if any chance of them getting through?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  No.  Mr. Stark has his own plan --
and it's sort of a modified single-payer plan.  So you wouldn't 
need the alliances if you did he what he wanted -- you know, if 
-- if the government paid for it all and fixed the price; if you 
had -- just expanded for Medicare.  But we see no evidence that 
beyond that subcommittee that that plan could pass.  
	     
	     But on the other hand, he does want universal 
coverage, and he wants comprehensive benefits.  And so I consider 
him an ally because he wants that.  He's been in this area a long 
time, and he has a fixed view about how he thinks it should be 
done.  And so anything that's sent to his subcommittee obviously 
he's going to try to -- he's going to see that it reflects his 
view.  We'll just see what happens.  
	     
	     I think -- but keep in mind, you've got that 
committee that a bill would have to come out of, and you've got 
two other house committees, then you've got two Senate 
committees.  So you've got subcommittees in all the committees, 
five of them, and then the ultimate committees, and then the 
battle on the floor.  And this is just beginning.
	     
	     So I'm not concerned about it because I think what 
everybody's going to have to do is to ask and answer the 
questions -- that at least he's asked and answered:  Are you for 
universal coverage?  Do you want reasonable benefits?  And all 
these people here who have written me these letters make the best 
case for having a simple, clear comprehensive system that covers 
everybody and that involves things like prescription medicine.  
And I know you've been briefed on the letters they wrote me and 
how the system's affected them.  But I consider, therefore, even 
though Pete Stark has a totally different view about how it ought 
to be done than I do, what he wants to do is what I want to do.
	     
	     So I'm not troubled by that.  We'll just have to see 
what comes out of that subcommittee, what comes out of the Ways 
and Means Committee as a whole, and where we go.  I just think 
that the main issue now is going to be getting all the members of 
Congress to sit down and ask and answer in a very calm and 
clearheaded way these hard questions that relate to making sure 
everybody has guaranteed private insurance, having the benefits 
be comprehensive to include preventive and primary care and 
things like this prescription drug benefit that we're here to 
talk about.  If that happens, then I think we're on the way to 
victory.  We'll work out everything else, but I -- I'm going to 
have a lot of very good conversations with people in both parties 
who are interested in this to deal with those big questions.  If 
you can get there, I'm convinced we'll work out the details.  I'm 
not worried.

                               END2:05 P.M. EST