Bill Clinton: “Unfortunately, the story you just told is all too typical. The reason I laughed is the doctor has a work of art on his…”

“Unfortunately, the story you just told is all too typical. The reason I laughed is the doctor has a work of art on his wall inside that another artist gave him as an in-kind payment. And I can remember when my mother was a nurse anesthetist, I can remember when people, in the appropriate season, used to go pick fruit and pay her in return for her services. That works for a few people. I don't think it's a very good way to run a country. Let me just say, the way our system would work if we reformed the insurance system is that that simply would not happen because everybody would be covered, there would be a clear package of benefits, there would be a single form, you would just turn it in. And your employer would never--I'm glad your employer tried to get it covered, at least. A lot of small employers are terrified of a serious thing like this because they know that their insurance is already so much more expensive than larger employers or than Government insurance, and they're afraid they'll be priced right out of the market. Under our system, everybody would be able to buy insurance on equal terms, and the coverage would be uniform and consistent. So you wouldn't ever be putting an employer in a bind just because it was a small employer. Or if you were a self- employed artist and that was your only job, you'd have access to a really affordable policy. But you have to understand, this is the only country in the world with 1,500 separate health insurance companies writing thousands and thousands of different policies. And if they delay paying on you, then that in effect gives them time to earn interest on that money. So eventually, even if they pay, they've made a good deal out of it if they can delay payment for 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 months. But it may impair your ability to get certain care. This happens everywhere. You just heard what the doctor said. At the time when his caseload is doubled here--patientload--they have increased the number of people who devoted themselves to paperwork by sixfold. That's because this is the only country in the world that has literally 1,500 different companies writing thousands and thousands of different policies, where the doctors in the clinics have to hire people, trying to get payment when they're entitled anyway, and where the coverages are so complicated and different, when you put that with all the rules and regulations that the Government has, that you spend enormous amounts of time just trying to work out the transaction who's going to pay when. One of the primary benefits--perhaps the best benefit to doctors and clinics--of our plan is that we'd actually be able to have a single form for insurers, a single form for clinics, a single form for patients. And it would cut out a lot of this incredible paperwork and administrative cost. We spend about 10 cents on the dollar--let me tell you how much money that is. We're going to spend $900 billion on health care this year. So 10 cents on the dollar is $90 billion dollars a year. That's a lot of money. That's 1\1/2\ percent of our gross domestic product. We spend about that much more on administrative costs than any other country in the world spends on their health care system. That's how bad it is. And you get caught in it, in the delay. [Dr. Firestone mentioned the concerns of a small business owner about the cost of providing health insurance and workers' compensation for her employees.]”