Bill Clinton: “I think, Joe, I should make two points. One is that our bill, as it's presently written--and this is, again, a big…”

“I think, Joe, I should make two points. One is that our bill, as it's presently written--and this is, again, a big problem for the Congress to deal with, but we thought that one of the reasons our bill is somewhat longer than some of the other bills is that we deal with a lot of other things other folks don't. What's going to happen to the academic health care centers, what's going to happen to the undocumented aliens--all of those things that have been--we believe that there should be a package of benefits which includes primary and preventive benefits and which includes comprehensive alcohol and drug abuse treatment in the benefits. And we believe it will save this society a fortune over the long run. And one of the real hard decisions that Congress will have to make and that we will have to deal with is whether we should continue to be a nation that closes the barn door after the cow's out. You should know--and I didn't get into all this in my speech with you--but our bill is heavily weighted towards primary and preventive health care: mammographies for women whenever the doctor thinks it's appropriate and free from age 50 on--and just things like that, and comprehensive alcohol and drug abuse treatment benefits and any number of other primary preventive care treatment. So that's covered in the basic benefit package. In addition to that, in this year's budget there is a 12 percent increase in funds for drug education and treatment, even though we're cutting overall spending. And in the crime bill there is a huge increase for drug and alcohol abuse treatment for people who are incarcerated or who can avoid incarceration if one of the conditions of avoidance is being in a treatment program.”