Letter from the President


October 1993

My Fellow Americans:

     Every American must have the security of comprehensive
health benefits that can never be taken away. That is what the
Health Security Act is all about.

     Americans are blessed with the world's finest doctors and
nurses, the best hospitals, the most advanced medical technology,
and the most promising research on the face of the earth. We
cherish -- and we will never surrender -- our right to choose who
treats us and how we get our care.

     But today our health care system is badly broken.
 
     Insurance has become a contest of finding only the
healthiest people to cover. Millions of Americans are just a pink
slip away from losing their health coverage, one serious illness
away from losing their savings. Millions more are locked into
jobs for fear of losing their benefits. And small business owners
throughout our nation want to provide health care for their
employees and families but can't get it or can't afford it.

     Next year we will spend more than one trillion dollars on
health care -- and still leave 37 million Americans without
health insurance, and 25 million more with inadequate coverage.
Skyrocketing health care costs have forced workers to trade wage
increases to maintain health benefits and crippled our nation's
manufacturers in global competition. And every month that passes
without health care reform adds billions to our national deficit.

     In short, all the things that are wrong with our health care
system threaten everything that's right. To preserve what's right
and fix what's wrong, we must get the system under control -- and
put people first.

     The Health Security Act is grounded in six basic principles:
security, simplicity, savings, quality, choice and
responsibility. 

     Security means providing every American with comprehensive
health benefits that can never be taken away. We must -- and we
will -- outlaw insurance company practices that discriminate
against consumers and small businesses, and make care available
to all Americans, no matter where they live or how old or sick
they are.


     Simplicity means reducing the paperwork that frustrates all
of us and wastes countless hours and billions of dollars.  We
must cut through the red tape and free doctors and nurses to
return to what they do best -- care for patients.
  
     Achieving savings starts with giving groups of consumers and
small businesses the same buying clout as large employers to
bargain for fair prices. Communities, companies and health plans
across the nation are learning to discipline health costs. We
must follow their lead.
  
     Quality means improving what is already the highest quality
care in the world.  It means a new emphasis on keeping us healthy
rather than waiting until we get sick, and giving consumers and
providers the information they need to judge quality for
themselves.

     Choice means preserving our right to choose our doctors and
increasing our choice of health plans.  We must protect the
doctor-patient relationship that lies at the heart of good health
care.
 
     Responsibility starts with those who profit from our current
system but carries on to each and every one of us. It means every
employer and employee must contribute something to the cost of
health care, even if that contribution is small.
 
     These principles are the guiding stars that we will follow
on our journey toward health care reform.  I am convinced that if
we agree on these basic values, we can preserve all that is right
with American health care, and fix what is wrong.
  
     Our history -- the history of challenges met, and obstacles
overcome -- teaches us that we can succeed.  After decades of
false starts, we must find the courage to change.  And when our
work is done -- when we provide every American with true health
security -- we will know that we have answered the call of
history and met the challenge of our time.