Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Thank you, Dick, and thank you, Carolyn. And thank you also for bringing my tea out here. The…”

“Thank you very much. Thank you, Dick, and thank you, Carolyn. And thank you also for bringing my tea out here. The Hospital Association is giving care to the President for his sick voice today. [Laughter] I thank you. I appreciate so much what both Dick and Carolyn said, and I want to begin by thanking all of you here who have ever had me in your hospitals--[laughter]--which is a large number of people. Especially all the people who represent my native State and who have done so much to help educate me on these issues over the years. The time that I have spent in hospitals since I was a small boy has made a very big impression on me. I always learn something. I always leave with a sense of inspiration about the dedication of the people who work there. And I want to say a special word of thanks to this association for the work that you have done with our administration over the last year, in a very constructive way, in helping us to try to develop an approach which would solve the problems of the American health care system and protect and enhance what is good about it. I know that there will still be some issues on which there will be disagreement as we go forward, but I think it's important that we clarify today, as Dick did so well in his introduction, that we agree on the most important issue: We have to preserve what is right; we have to fix what is wrong; we have to guarantee private insurance to every American so that everybody will be covered.…”