Bill Clinton: “Well, what I have said is that we have to achieve universal coverage. The fight now is over how best to do it. And what…”

“Well, what I have said is that we have to achieve universal coverage. The fight now is over how best to do it. And what I have to tell you is there is a big argument about whether it can be achieved in any way other than the way I have proposed. I will not sign a bill that I think makes a false promise to the people of the United States. We have got to sign a bill that achieves full coverage for the American people. If you don't do it, you can't contain costs, you can't give the breaks that small business needs over the long run. You can't achieve these things. So, yes, if Congress passes a bill that is different from the one I originally proposed, would I veto it? It depends on whether it achieves full coverage. If it is a credible attempt to do that, then I'm open to it. But it must be a credible, credible bill to do that. And that's the only thing I ask all of you to focus on now. Instead of letting the political rhetoric control this debate on health care, let us ask simply what will work. The other day--let me just give you this in closing because this is very important, and if I don't achieve anything else today in this conversation that I've had with you, which I've enjoyed immensely, if I can achieve agreement with you on this, it would be something profound to me. This is a very complicated issue, health care. I have studied it for years and years. But the more complex it gets, the more you understand that in the end it comes down to some simple choices. In every nation that has covered everybody, quality health care can be provided at lower costs than in the United States, the only nation that doesn't cover everybody. So what I ask us all to do, as others come forward with their ideas and bend over backwards to avoid what I think we should do, which is to require all employers and employees to take responsibility through private insurance, let us ask: Will it work? We are going in the wrong direction. We are losing coverage and exploding cost. I am not going to sign a bill that I think perpetrates these problems on the American people. If someone else can figure out how to get universal coverage in a different way than I have achieved it, I would be open to that. I have not seen it yet. That's why the American Medical Association, the National Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, other physicians' groups, and huge numbers of businesses and consumer groups have endorsed our approach. So that's what we ought to be doing. We shouldn't be trying to get ourselves into word games now about what mechanism is appropriate. The only test is what works. And I know my plan will work if we share responsibility and cover everybody. Thank you very much.”