Bill Clinton: “But let's deal with two hard questions here, real quick. I think this is important. Question number one, pretty soon if…”

“But let's deal with two hard questions here, real quick. I think this is important. Question number one, pretty soon if the genome project is brought to fruition, according to what Dr. Varmus told me, when I spent a day out there, it will become normal in some point in the not-too-distant future for young mothers to go home with their babies from the hospital with a map of their genetic future. You may not want to know about Alzheimer's, but you could know about things that even if you can't cure you could delay, defer, or minimize. So you get that. Now, the mother and the father are employed by someone, and they provide family health insurance. Since private insurance is based on a reasonable approximation of risk--I don't agree with the way we finance health care in this country. You all know that, but that's a fight I didn't win here in the last 7 years. If it's based on an assessment of risk, what should the insurance company have a right to know? And if the insurance company doesn't have a right to know, haven't you undermined the whole basis of privately funded insurance based on risk--question one. Question two for you. Dr. Cerf. We don't get to answer that one?”