Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230225
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"At long last, after decades of false starts, we must make this our most urgent priority: giving every American health security, health care that can never be taken away, health care that is always there," Clinton said before a nationally televised joint session of Congress.
"It is a magic moment, and we must seize it," Clinton said to ringing applause. The president spoke with evident feeling during his 53-minute address, often departing from his pencil-marked text.
Interrupted 34 times by applause, Clinton drew the warmest response when speaking extemporaneously.
Clinton asserted that health-care reform can be financed largely by eliminating waste and abuse, but he did not provide details.
He called for increased taxes on cigarettes - expected to be at least 75 cents a pack - and a fee on big companies that opt out of the redesigned health-care system. Administration officials said the corporate fee would amount to less than 1 percent of payroll.
"I believe, as strongly as I can say, that we can reform the costliest and most wasteful health-care system on Earth without any new broad-based taxes," Clinton said.
Although he acknowledged that younger, healthier workers who now get low-cost insurance may have to pay more, Clinton said most Americans would be better off under his plan.
"The vast majority of Americans watching tonight will pay the same or less for their health care coverage and, at the same time, get the same or better coverage than they have tonight."
Clinton said he is willing to compromise on details, but spelled out six principles that aides said are "non-negotiable." They are: security, simplicity, quality, savings, choice and responsibility.
"These are the guiding stars that we should follow on our journey to health-care reform," Clinton said. Hearings on his plan begin next week; key votes will not occur until well into next year.
The president paid tribute to his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who led the administration's health-care reform effort, taking an unprecedented role in making policy.
He called her "a talented navigator, someone with a rigorous mind, a steady compass and a caring heart." Lawmakers responded with a standing ovation.
Hoping to encourage bipartisanship, Clinton recognized Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served two Republican presidents as surgeon general and who was seated next to Hillary Clinton.
In their televised response, Republicans pledged to seek compromises with Clinton but complained that his plan amounts to a federal takeover of the $940 billion health-care system - one-seventh of the entire economy. They warned it would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, erode quality and reduce patient choice.
"It's clear to me that we can't rely on heavy-handed government regulation and bureaucracies to lead the charge toward reform," said South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell, lead spokesman for the Republican Party. "The 239-page administration draft is a giant social experiment designed by theorists who have never met a payroll."
by CNB