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THE WHITE HOUSE
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Office of the PFessSecFetary
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For Internal Use Only
January 28, 1994
INTERVIEW OF THE FIRST LADY
BY .{ANEIGRE~N
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LAS VEGASi REVIEW.
MRS. CLINTON: 1 o'clock, and we drove to the
hotel, and everything was stililgoingon. And there were
people on the streets and all kinds; of activity and all these'
huge, beautiful hotels. I was Just stunned. You know, you
can imagine it, and youcanseelpic;turesof it, but seeing it
in person is -- it's very different.
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And then Governor Milier was telling me about, you
know, the ,sizes of thesehotelslthat I'm not going to get 'to
see. And, you know, they have got theme parks inside them
and everything.
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. MS. GREEN:
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a chance to get out at
Did you have
all?
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MRS. CLINTON: No. Jjt was, I think, about, what, 4
o'clock Washington time b¥ the time we got to the hotel -- or
4:30 Washington time~
'MS. GREEN:
you this trip?
So, gambling is not a high priority for
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MRS. CLINTON:
MS. GREEN,:
I dO,n'lt th1nk so.
Well,
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~ondering
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MRS. CLINTON: But I ,wanted to ,say something else
about Las Vegas. My mother-in-law loved Las'Vegas, and
everybody here was so nice to her. And,of course, she died,
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shortly after she came back from her last trl.:p when she came
to the Barbra streisand concert. '
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And I just wal1t to t~ank,th~ people. I mean,
everybody was so wonderful. And a lot of the people in the
hospital told me they had had
chance to meet her or that
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they had had a conversation with her~ because she was such a
gregarious person. Shenevermet'a stranger. And I just
wanted to thank eVerYbOdY..
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MS. GREEN: And this ~rip, I understand, is partly
political and partly health care related. And Governor
Miller's support, is that tnem~in reason why you've decided
that you wanted to help him.out~ Is it because of his
previous support of Mr •. Clinton?
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MRS. CLINTON: Well, you ~now, Governor Miller and'
his wife, Sandy, have been friends of ours for a number of
years, going back to the time w~en.thepresident was a
governor. Their children have played with our daughter at
governors' conferences. And th~n, from the very moment that
the President decided he was going to run for President back
in 1991 or so, Governor Miller has been a staunch and
effective supporter.
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So he's a friend, as well. as a supporter, and we
have had the privilege of ~orkihg with h·im through the
Governors' Association since my-I.husband 'has been President.
And, certainly, months. and months ago, I said .if there were
anything I could do to help him, t would'be glad to. And I'm
pleased to be able to do that.
And then health' care is such an important part Qf
what the President's trying ·to ,do •. And so, for me, coming to
see what is happening in: Nevadal and h,aving a chance to talk
to people ,about health care is /alsovery important.
MS. GREEN: And onJ?ealth care, I'm interested in
asking you some specific questfons,about how your plan might
affect Nevada. The biggest issue that state officials here
are concerned about. is the rurch nature of Nevada and how you
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extend managed care out tbthose areas.
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I' know that therearJ ideas' there for expanding the
workforce of medical personnel I there and.electronic
technology. Do you think thatls enough?·
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MRS. CLINTON: Well, I think there al:"e some
addition,a,l elements of the President's approach that will get
better and more affordable care into rural areas. One of the
big problems in rural'areas is I that. you have a very high
Medicare and Medicaid and uninsured popUlation.
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And, by providing stable ~unding streams in rural
areas, you're going to have a mJch better financial base for
providing health care, which willI be attractive ·to
physicians, nurses, and other ·he.althcare professionals on
its own, because they will begirt to have some reimbursement·
for their services.
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We are trying to designate facilities in both rural
and urban areas as necessary, so that we can better support
those where they're needed. And then" we are trying to
encourage more professionals tolgo to rural areas. We're
reviving the National Health Service Corps. We .want to
provide loan forgiveness and better'loan repayment terms.
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And ',I thl.nk technology wl.II be a boon to rural
areas •. I've seen examples of it, where a doctor in a rural
area 400 miles from a medical.c~nter·has a conversation about
an x-ray that is ,seen si-multanect,usly in both offices, so you
don't have to either transfer YCl>ur p,atientsunnecessarily, or
the patient doesn~thave to go to the expense of traveling as
much.'
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So all of those·facto+,s.together, all of which are,
part of the health care plan, ·willinake a big, positive
impact on rural areas.
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MS. GREEN: One of. the. other things that Nevada
off icials are concerned about is t.here a·re so many transient
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people here who actually' ll.ve here for a number of months out
of the year, and the lo.cal alliance would be able to treat
them for emergency care but not nonemergency. What would you
do about that?
MRS. CLINTON': But people who come and work here.
for a couple of months will trahsfe,r their enrollment or, if
they don't get around ,to transferring it, their enrollment in
wherever they came from wilt .hare,..in a sense, a designated
fund of' money thath~s been paid in:' on the behalf of those
workers which will be used to p~y f.or care that they receive
in Nevada.
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And, in addition, onc.e somebody goes' to work here, .
then there will be payments made on their behalf and by the .'
indi v~dual into the a'~flianceorll th~ purcl;1asing cooperative' .
here l.n Neva~a. So, l.rjeffect,Nevada wl.llbe better off
than many states because they have a lot of problems that now
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fall between the cracks in the current health system.
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MS. GREEN: And I wa~lalso interested aft.er your
husband's speech where he prettYI much promised a veto of
anything without upiversalcoveZjage.Qoes that. basically
mean that he would veto the Coo~erplan or any other specific
plan?
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,MRS. CLINTON: We don't know what the final
legislation will be, and so I don't think anybodY-'s
speculating about it. But hem~de it very clear that
without, in his words, "guarant.eedprivate insurance," he
will not think the Congress has Idone its job.
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MS. GREEN: And were ~ou 9u.pportiveof the idea of
drawing a line in the sand that way?
MRS. CLINTON:' Well, he has all along. This is
nothing new. When he ~ook the]egislation to Capitol Hill
and when he gave his health care speech, he said everything
is negotiable, all the details ~bout bow we get to where ,
we're going. But what's not negotiable is getting everybody
covered, because we know that. will save us money, as well as
taking care of people."
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MS. GREEN: One of th~ philosophical questions
people talk about'a little bit. is whet.her health care is a
right. And that seems to be underlying debate about how this
should be gone, 'about. I Qeli~v~ you've said in the past that
you feel it is aright.
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'CLINTON:
Yes, I do.
MS . GREEN: How does that compare when you have
health care that a lot of people see as a commodity, not
something that people c'an
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MRS. CLINTON: But,l.tis,not a commodl.;ty ll.ke any
other commodity. You don't comparison shop for your health
care. You don't plan the purch*se. You have no idea when
you're going to get. struck by illness or ac;::cident. You don't
really have a chance to get the I kind of information that the
marketplace can provide you ,about a'\ltomobiles or dishwashers.
So, it is a service. And" as a ~ervice, it is one that we all
cannot do without.
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But there's another underlying issue, which is that
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countr1es w1th whom we have com~eted that have made health
care coverage a right have actuaillydone abetter job in
keeping costs down, because thi~ is 'not the kind of
marketplace where people feel cdmfortable bargaining. :t
mean, the providers a;re the people'who have all the
information.
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Most of us don't have the capacity to ma~e a
decision about what is, or isnoti the proper medication. And,
once we get everyboqy in the sy~tem; we can stabilize the
costs and get better information to people so that they can
truly make more informed d~cisi1ns. '
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, But, in the absence of that, we're just flying
blind. And people are spendinglmoney on health care ,and
doing what they're told to do atr th~ time because that's the
way it happens to them. T:hey don't'think about it ahead of
time.
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MS. GREEN: Well,:t know the National Health eorps
would be envisioned as a body that would make a' lot of
decisions about what kind of'healthcare would be provided on
things like transplants, for in~tance. ,And I'm wondering, in
your view would, for instance, ~ 62~year-old man be able to
get a bone marrow tra,nsplant? I mean, in the current system,
it kind of depends on who his in.surer is.
MRS. CLINTON: That 's Iwhat it/' s going, to, depend
upon in the reformed system• . ¥c;>u 'know, the health board,
under the President's approach has fewer -- not more, but
fewer powers than the health boards' created in some of the '
other approaches that are being I advocated, because the other
approaches set the basic benefits updertheir health plan
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This legislation of the President sets the basic
benefits and then says, if ther~ are to be changes that can
be built on '-- but it's a very significant difference, where
the people will know what insurance' they're getting from the
President's ~egislat~on., In thrse other approaches, they
won't. , They'll just vote to create some big government
board, which I think is very scary . ,
decisio~l th~t
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So these are
we want to leave to the
individual and to the local c0mtun~ty. 'And, where scientific
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evidence can be useful., we want Ithe Na,tional Health Board to
make that available. But we don't want the National Health .
Board determining what your insUrance benefits are. We want·
that in the legislation.
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. MS. GREEN: For instance, :with transplants, one of .
the problems right now for those' people :is that it is such a
mishmash. It depends on what ydur insurance is. It depends
on whether Medicaid covers that ,particular procedure. Would
you still have that problem under the President's plan?
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MRS. CLINTON: Well, ¥jOU would for some that are
experimental procedures, but not for others. And that's the
kind of thing that we thin~ shotild be put into a more
standardized form. And, yes, there will have to be decisions
made, as there are now, but they.. will be much less haphazard
than they are now.
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MS. GREEN: 'An~ you ·mentioned the Republican attack
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on the plan currently, 16 focus1l'~g on the alleged bureaucracy
involved. How do· you responc;hfor instanc.e, to what Mr. Dole
put on TV the other night, his Mig chart, do you think that's
giving the wrong message?
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MRS. CLINTON: Well,] thought it was just kind of
funny. I mean, he knows better Ithan that. They have got two
attacks. One is that one and the other is that there is no .
health care cr1S1s.And both of those are just desperate
attempts to try to undermine the real need to get decent
health care reform.
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We have the most bureaucratic system in the world
right now. Have you ever 6eenct chart of .what the existing
system looks like? That's what ItheY're. try,ing to divert· .
attention from, because they are defenders of the status quo
in the health care system.
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Under the current sys~em, 'I can't get anybody who
either describe it to me orally or give me a
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chart about how 1 t works ,because y(;m havel, 500 d1fferent
insurance policies, all with t.h~ir different terms and
conditions, all determining what you do or do not get covered
for, all of them interfering wi~h your doctor's clinical . .
autonomy, because now, mor.e and Imore doctors have to get
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permission from insuranc~company bureaucrats to do, .certain
things to take care of their patients.
c~n·rationally
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We already have the most bureaucratic system. You
could not design amqre bureaucr~tic system. And, ill fact,
the approach we'r~ taking dramat:i6ally simplifies it. It
saves money thro\lgh the simplifipation of it.
MS. GREEN:. And also, ;I wanted to throw in a
question on your visit. Were you aw:are that the .pro-choice
advocates in the state were reall cance.rned about. yau,r visit
because Mr. Miller dOes nothaye a pro-choice stance? They
.felt maybe you were putting POliltics above that. issue.
MRS.• CLINTON: Well, as I understand it, there's a
state referendum that establishe~Nevada as a pro-choice
state. Isn't that right?
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MS. GREEN:
I believe so.
MRS. CLINTON:. So thatl, to me. is, you know, pretty
definitive as to what the state and·its citizens want. And I
think, as I recallwh.at happenedl' Governor Miller signed the
petition and was willing to have it ,on the ballot and is
willing to abide by the decisions o~ the majority o·f the
people of Nevada, which· strikes. ~e~s an apprqpriate outcome.
MS. GREEN:
You don't:see >'it as a .conflict?
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MRS~ CLINTON:
No, I dpn't. I wanted to say one
thing, though .. Somebody mentioned to me this morning as I
was traveling around .;....;. I think !H:.was in your newspaper -
that said what really ought to b~.done is the federal
employees' health benefit. plan ought to ·be extended to the
country.
MS. GREEN:
That could be,.
MRS. CLINTON: I th~nkl th~t your newspaper had
advocated that or had argued:Lt.! At least one of the doctors
or somebody told me that. And that"s absolutely the model
_ that we're trying to achieve. Artd the trick is, though, that
there is, in' effe<:;:t, .a funding m~chanisl)l for that to happen,
because the federal government, as tQe employerqf all these
people, pays 75 percent of theh~alth care coverage, and the
employee pays 25 •. And we're askll.ng :for an 80.,.20 split, which
is about the same. .
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So I know that this dOFtor who was talkj,ng to me
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said that your newspaper ·had be~n critical about some of the
features of the pres~dent's pla~.And ,I would be happy ~6
have somebody talk Wl.th the pec:>~le.~t the paper to expl~l.n to
them that what they're advocat1ng 1.S what we areproposl.nq.
So there shouldn't be misunderstanding or any kind of
inaccurate. information aboQt ~hdt.
MS. GREEN:
I'll
that along to our editor.
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MRS. CLINTON: You can call me or caii my office.,
45.6-2960, and talk to Neil -(,photietic), probably, who· set this
up. And we would be glad to litie you up with someone, a
senior policy advisory on healtH care.
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Because I don i·t have any problem with people being
politically opposed to what the :pre~ident's trying to do~ I
just want to be sure that we get1accurate information I
because this is such· an importan!t decision for the country.
The people need to maketheirdelcis~ons on the basis of
accurate information about what is or. is not going to happen.
MS.• GREEN:
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understand~
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'Thank you for your time.
MRS. CLINTON: Thank ybu for your time. Thanks for
your questions. You"ve done you~ homework. I really
appreciate that.
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(Whereupon, the 'interview 'was concluded.)
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
Creator
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993 - 1997
Is Part Of
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36239" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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2011-0415-S
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Lissa Muscatine first served in the Clinton Administration as a speechwriter. Within the First Lady’s Office, she served as Communications Director to the First Lady.</p>
<p>Lissa Muscatine’s records consist of materials from First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Press Office, highlighting topics such as health care, women’s rights, the Millennium Council, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and deal extensively with press interviews given by the First Lady; her domestic and foreign travel; and speeches and remarks, on a wide variety of topics, given by her before and during her time as First Lady. The records include interview transcripts, press releases, speeches and speech transcripts.</p>
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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1,324 folders in 27 boxes
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Paper
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FLOTUS Press Office Interview Transcripts Volume II 10/93 - 01/28/94 [Binder]: [01/28/94 Green, Jane Las Vegas Review]
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Box 3
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/2011-0415-S-Muscatine.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Creator
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
Identifier
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2011-0415-S
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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11/26/2012
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2011-0415-S-flotus-press-office-interview-transcripts-volume-ii-10-93-01-28-94-binder-01-28-94-green-jane-las-vegas-review
7431941