Bill Clinton: “Well, I haven't received the report, as you know, of the Health Care Task Force yet, but let me say that one of the…”

“Well, I haven't received the report, as you know, of the Health Care Task Force yet, but let me say that one of the markers I laid down for them when they began their work was that we didn't need just simply to provide coverage for Americans, but there had to be access in rural areas and in inner city areas, especially. And they are exploring any number of ways to do that. I spent one afternoon here on a hearing on rural health care, talking about how we could bring health care to people in rural areas and make it economical and available. And I have spent an enormous amount of time in the last 16 months in urban health care settings trying to discover which model--I've done that myself--trying to determine which models can be replicated in other inner city areas. From my experience at home I knew more about rural areas. But the bottom line is you've got to have more clinics in the rural areas and in the inner cities that are accessible and where there is an ethnic diversity, where they are accessible not only physically but in terms of language and culture. And these things can be done. And if you do it right, if they're really comprehensive primary and preventive health care centers, they lower the cost of health care because they keep more people out of the emergency rooms. Bosnia”