Remarks on proposed legislation to expand Medicare

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 23, 1998

Thank you very much. Thank you. Senator Kennedy is even more exuberant than normal today, but you have to forgive him and me and Senator Moynihan and isolated others - this is St. Patrick's Day, and we're feeling pretty good, the Irish are. [Laughter]

Thank you, Congressman Stark, for your long leadership and your willingness to push this legislation. Thank you, Senator Moynihan, for making it utterly clear, so that no one can dispute it, that this legislation presents no threat to the integrity of the Medicare program or the security of the Trust Fund. Thank you, Sherrod Brown, for your initiative and your leadership. As always, thank you, Senator Kennedy.

And I'd like to say a word of thanks to one person who has not spoken here today, our Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, who has worked so hard to help one particular group of Americans here: Americans who retired early, in part because they were promised health care benefits which were then denied to them. This will take care of them, and we can keep the promise that others made to them. And I think we have to do it. And thank you, Tom Daschle, for fighting for them.

I'd also like to thank Leader Gephardt and Congressman Dingell and all the Members of the House caucus who are here - thank you very, very much. And I can't help noting that this may be the first public appearance in Washington for the newest Member of this caucus, Representative Lois Capps, from California.

Let me begin with a point I have made over and over to the American people since the State of the Union Address. This is a remarkable time for our country. I look out at all these young people who are working here, and I think how glad I am they are coming of age at a time when America is working, when we are making progress, economically; we're making progress on our social problems; we're making progress in our quest for peace and security in the world.

But everybody knows that the world is changing very rapidly. And so the question is, what should we be doing in the midst of good times? I believe the last thing we should be doing is sitting on our lead, if I could use a sports analogy. Good times give us the confidence, the resources, and the space not only to dream about the future we want in the 21st century but to take action to deal with it. It is wrong to sit idly by when we can be taking steps to prepare for that future. That's why I don't want us to spend a surplus that is only now beginning to materialize until we have saved Social Security for the 21st century. That's why I want us to work together to make sure we deal with the long-term challenges of Medicare.

But it's also why I think we should not let a single day go by when Americans have problems that we can remedy in ways that will not weaken our present success but instead will reinforce it. That's why I hope we get a comprehensive bill through to deal with the tobacco problem, because there are a thousand kids a day whose lives are at stake. And that's why I believe we should be dealing with this issue now.

President Johnson said when Medicare was first enacted that it proved the vitality of our democracy can shape the oldest of our values to the needs and obligations of changing times. That's what these leaders are doing here today.

You heard Senator Moynihan say most people don't wait till they're 65 to retire. But the fastest growing group of people are people over 65. There are huge numbers of people in this age group. There are people 62 and over who have lost their health insurance, but can't buy into Medicare. There are people under 65 who are married to somebody who's 65 or older who had the health insurance, and that person retired, got into Medicare, but the spouse lost the health insurance. There are people who are 55 and over who have been downsized, or who actually retired, early retirement, because their employer actually promised them they would have health insurance, and then the promise was not kept.

I want to say that this is not an entirely disinterested thing. In 2001, I will be 55 and unemployed, through no fault of my own. [Laughter] And this bill has a lot of appeal to me. [Laughter] I say that to make you laugh. I get a lot of letters from people that I've known a long time who are my age, who are middle class people, people I grew up with, whose spouses are beginning to have the health problems that go along with just working your way through life - people who don't have a great health insurance coverage, like I've been privileged to have. And they are terrified that they will spend the years between 55 and 65 with maybe the most challenging health problems in their entire lives cropping up, with no insurance.

Now, I believe that this is an issue on which Democrats and Republicans should be able to unite. We ask the Republicans to come and help us on this. Let's don't play election year games on this. We don't want to, either. We want to do it in a bipartisan fashion and get it behind us. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there in America who need this initiative.