Bill Clinton: “It will do three things. First of all, for people with Alzheimer's and other problems that require institutional care…”

“It will do three things. First of all, for people with Alzheimer's and other problems that require institutional care, we will continue to cover that. And we will cover it at least as well or better as now. But secondly, over a period of years--now, we can't do all this at once, because we have to phase-in the coverage as we realize more savings from the waste in the existing system. But over a period of years, we will also reimburse people for in-home care, because often times it's less expensive to maintain people in homes than in nursing homes. So we will, for the first time, have a system by which people can actually have coverage for in-home care. And that will include respite care, too. If, for example, you are taking care of a parent or a spouse, you're doing an incredible service for a society. You're keeping your family together, and you're saving money for the system, but you're entitled to a little time off. And so under this system, over a period of years we'd actually set up a reimbursement system so you could be reimbursed or covered to bring in a nurse, for example, if you wanted to take a 4-day weekend or something just to get away from the pressure of your duties. And over the long run, this will enable more people to keep their families together, lower the cost of care by keeping more people out of institutions and make for, I think, a better quality of life in our country. Mr. Koppel. To the degree that you can, Mr. President, can you give a sense of what the progression of years is going to be? In other words, you keep saying we're not going to be able to do all of this right away.”