Bill Clinton: “Well, actually, the biggest companies in the country are the ones most likely to benefit from this, because they are…”

“Well, actually, the biggest companies in the country are the ones most likely to benefit from this, because they are actually--even though they're self-insuring. When you self-insure, if you're big, the good news is that you acquire market power, and you can normally keep your rates from going up as fast as they otherwise would. The bad news is, you're still paying part of the costs of uncompensated care. That is, people are shifting the cost to you. We estimate that for a company like IBM that self-insures, you will save, the company will save on premiums, for whatever you're doing now, you'll save about $10 a month an employee under our system, which is a huge amount, simply by stopping the cost shifting to IBM, with no change in the benefits. No, you can keep on doing exactly what you're doing. Now, let me just give you an example of how it can get even bigger. For companies that have huge cost shifts and big retiree burdens like the big auto companies and the big steel companies, they will save even more. But the people that will be least affected by this are big companies with over 5,000 employees that choose to continue to self-insure. You will, however, benefit by the increased competition of the system. What I want everybody else to do is to have the benefits that IBM has. You won't lose anything. Xerox has cut their costs by $1,000 an employee a year through better managed care without taking anything away from the employees. And we think we can do that for all Americans. Mr. Koppel. Mr. President, let me be the doubting Thomas for a moment. Big companies are going to save money. The little businesses are going to save money. The 37 million people who you say are underinsured or uninsured right now----”