Bill Clinton: “That's very important. In this plan--I just wanted to mention this, because I think it's important--as the Congress…”

“That's very important. In this plan--I just wanted to mention this, because I think it's important--as the Congress debates this whole health care issue, the things which get the largest amount of attention, as they would expect, are how to provide universal coverage and whether you can maintain choice and quality with universal coverage, and a lot of these big questions. But what a lot of people don't know is that in rural America, even if you cover everybody, a lot of folks still don't have adequate access to health care, and there's a real doctor shortage out there. And no matter what happens, I hope the Congress will leave in the provisions of our plan, which have--one, would expand the National Health Service Corps by 7,000 doctors over the next 8 years; two, would give physicians who go into underserved rural areas tax credits of $1,000 a month, 5 years, which is a huge incentive; and three, would allow a much bigger, faster writeoff of equipment, medical equipment that doctors might bring into rural areas. So I think those three things will really help to reinforce what you're doing. Mr. Scott. Mr. President, Dr. McRoberts is one of our three practicing family physicians in the county. Our ratio of family practice physicians to population is almost one to 8,000.”