Bill Clinton: “Let me just mention the dental issue first. Under our proposal, the comprehensive benefit package would include dental…”

“Let me just mention the dental issue first. Under our proposal, the comprehensive benefit package would include dental benefits for children up to 18, but not mandates for adults. That doesn't mean any employer plan that now covers dental benefits is perfectly free to keep doing so. And since they'll have all kinds of economic incentives to keep their costs down, they'll probably keep doing it. But we don't think we can, again, recognizing the costs of this, afford to do more than this at this time. But there's nothing to prohibit that. Most people, as you know now, who have dental benefits through their employers actually buy the benefits in an override policy, and that will all still be available. The problem with the present insurance system, let me say again is that, first of all, too many people are uninsured, and the complexity of it is so great. But we are the only country in the world that has 1,500 different companies writing thousands of different policies, requiring every hospital and doctor's office to keep up with hundreds of different forms, so that we literally add about a dime to every dollar of health care cost on paperwork that has nothing to do with keeping people well. So what we're trying to do is get down to one form, and this health security card, so that, number one, your life will be a lot simpler. The time you have to spend on forms, the time you have to hire people to spend on forms will be less; the time you spend practicing dentistry will be greater. And the time all of our medical professionals spend doing what they hired out to do in the first place will be greater. That's what we're trying to do. Mr. Koppel. How detailed is that form going to be? I mean, that one form is going to have to be a killer form to--[laughter].”