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CLINTON LIBRARY PHOTOCOPY
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CLINTON LIBRARY PHOTOCOPY
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I. - THE WHITE HOUSE
9ff1ce of the Press Secretary
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For Immediate Release
March 3, 1994
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I REMARKS OF THE FIRST LADY
TO THE CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND CONFERENCE,
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VIA SATELLITE
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Thank you all, so much, and thank you, Marion, for
that warm welcom~ and for your leadership and years of
friendship, not just to me but to children. And it is so
wonderful for me,1 even through satellite, to be able to be
there with you.
I wan't to thank also my many good friends at the
Children's Defense Fund. I want to thank you for inviting me
to take part in this conference, .and for all the work you do
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all year long. ~t's a real pr1v1lege for me to speak to all
of you gathered in Cincinnati for CDF's annual convention.
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The fact that mo~e than 2400 advocates have traveled, and I
know sometimes with great difficulty, from allover the
country to share!ideas about the state of America's children
is a testament to the power of CDF's mission.
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I am slrry I'm not able to join you in person, but
I did not want this opportunity to go by without my being
there in some way to emphasize the importance of the work
that CDF does, and the importance of the work that all of you
do every day_ T6day we live in an age of great promise and
great peril for 9ur nation's children. While we've made
considerable strides in improving health, education and job
opportunities fo~ America's young, our children continue to
shoulder burdens! never encountered by children in any other
civilized society.
-TOday,[too many American children grow up in broken
homes. Too many I American children go to school hungry. Too
many American children never visit a doctor or a dentist.'
Too many Americart children are immersed in a culture of
violence that threatens to~lienate entire generations.
When the President spoke at the CDF convention a
year ago, he pledged his continuing support for the important
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work that CDF haJ done on behalf of children. I suppose it
may sound a little self-serving for this former CDF board
chair to say thi~, but I really believe it's true: for more
than two decades /this organization has made sure that the
cries of desperate children never fallon deaf ears, and this
President has he~rd those cries.
The thJme of your conference this week, leave no
child behind, is la call to all Americans to strengthen our
commitment to children across this country. In the past
year, the Presid~nt has placed children squarely on the
national agenda. Virtually all of his legislative
initiatives thus far are related to improving the lives of
families and chi]dren and to restoring the American dream of
opportunity and rlpward mobility.
Health Icare reform, welfare reform, tax reform,
deficit reduction, crime prevention, gun control,
education -- allithese issues stem from the president's
belief that America cannot afford to waste a single person,
particularly notla child. In an age when children too often
are pried loose Erom their moorings, when the values taught
by families, sch6ols, churches are being assaulted by a
plague of violende and hopelessness, we must be even more
determined to pr6vide anchors for our young.
. If a cJild arrives at school hungry, it's no wonder
he or she can't pay attention in class. If a child lives in
a hopeless home ~nvironment -- and unfortunately, too many
children do. Ev~ry day I hear that maybe one out of every 10
children betweenlthe ages of three and five live in some home
environment thatiis deficient. It is no wonder that he or
she grows up with poor self-esteem and little confidence
about the futureJ
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If a child becomes accustomed to hearing gunfire
outside his homelall day and night, it's no wonder he learns
to settle disput~s with violence. How can children become
healthy, productive citizens if their nutritional health and
emotional needs ~re·ignored? That describes the questions
that lead to thelcrisis we're in, and this is a crisis we
must and can res01ve.
The gold news is that we're making strides to
improve the live~ of children across the country. For the
first time our n~tion now had a family and medical leave law
that helps parents be good parents by giving them tim~ off
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for family emergJncieso I hope some of you in this audience
know families, a~I I do, who have been able to take advantage
of that law alre9dy.
We havJ a family preservation and support program
that Marion refer.red to. That will provide nearly $1 billion
over the next fiVe years for family counseling, parenting
training, and other services designed to help parents and
families cope with stress, and to keep families together.
The prJsident also has established a seven-point
agenda for lifet~me learning that will help ,restore
opportunity and hope from children from the time they are
born, all.through school, and into, their. work. lives.. , As part
of that agenda, this year's budget contains major new
investments in.H~ad start, with an emphasis on quality, an
expansion of the Iprogr'am to a full day, and full year program
where it's appropriate, and a new initiative geared to
children from ea~liest infancy to age three.
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BecausJ the President believes so strongly that
children need a healthy start in life, his budget also
includes a 15 pe~cent increase in the funding for WIC,
despite extraordinary pressures in congress to cut programs
across the boardJ Because the President believes that every
child deserves tb grow up in a safe environment, and because
he knows that meial detectors and security guards alone can't
stem violence, h~ has introduced safe schools legislation.
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That eJphasizes getting weapons out of schools, but
also provides for programs that will teach students to
resolve differen~es without violence. That bill now awaits
final action in
house-senate conference, and I hope you
will support it. i I might add that the President is extremely
proud to have signed the Brady bill into law, because this
President believes that we need to stem guns if we expect to
stem violence.
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He alsb believes that education is the foundation
for success in c~reers as well as a training ground for good
citizenship. And he has introduced what he calls Goals 2000
legislation, whi6h creates national education standards and
gives local comm~nities more flexibility in running their
schools.
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H~ haslalso introduced a school-to-work bill that
helps students integrate on-the-job training with classroom
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learning. We hope' to see these
within the next few months.
measu~es
signed into law
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perhapJ most important of all, though, is that
congress now has Ian historic opportunity to pass real health
care reform legislation. Nothing could be more vital to our
children. TOdaylnearlY 10 million children under 18 have no
health insurance t and that means neither Medicaid nor private
health insurance) and the rate is increasing. About 30
percent never redeived childhood immunizations. Nearly half
of today's priva~e health plans don't pay for preventive
serv~ces for ch~ldren.
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Today lhildren too often are the victims of a
health care syst~m that is broken. The President's approach ~
attempts to fix the system and give children the right start '
in life. And de~pite what some opponents would have you
believe, his apptoach is not that complicated. In fact, it's
pretty darn simpie.
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It begins with the firm belief that every American
and every American child deserves health security. That .
means guaranteedlprivate insurance that offers comprehensive
health benefits, benefits that can never be taken away. As
the new CDP repo~t shows, the number of children with health
insurance has de6lined from 64 PE!rcent ..to about 60 percent
between 1987 and11992. That's nearly one percent a year.
In Ohi0 alone, where you are meeting, 224,000
children are uni~sured. That's why universal coverage,
covering everybody with everything in a benefits package, is
a must. The comprehensive benefits that are benefits that do
not run out ever Iin your life time are key. Those benefits
include a full range of services, including prenatal care,
well-baby exams, I preventive and diagnostic tests, and'
childhood immunizations.
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Those benef~ts don't exclu d e peop I e or ch~ldren
with pre-existing conditions or chronic illnesses, a
partipularly imp6rtant component of reform for parents whose
children have setious health problems. And let me just tell
you one story that comes from the state of Ohio.
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I'recebtlY visited the children's hospital in
Cleveland, where I I met with parents and children, children
with chronic and acute diseases. None of these parents could
get private insurance. Many of them could afford insurance,
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but because their children were sick with what's called a
pre-existing condition, no one would sell them insurance.
One faJilY that had a healthy older son, two little
girls born with ~ystic fibrosis, told me that they searched
everywhere for private insurance. They couldn't find it.
But finally, at their last stop, something was said to them
which they foundlchilling, and I do as well. The insurance
broker looked at this family that said they wanted to pay
their own way, they wanted to make a contribution to their
child's health n~eds -- and the insurance broker looked at
them and said, What you don't understand is that we don't
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1nsure b '
urn1ng hi
ouses.
cannlt~imagine
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how I 'would ,feel "if.. there, but for
the grace of .God) my daughter neededchronic:medical. care,
and although my llusband and I could afford insurance, she was
called a burninglhouse. Under the President's approach, the
comprehensive benefits package is not an idle dream.
Everybody will g~t what is spelled out in statute.
It meals that by law kids will get the care they
need. And theirlhealth care will not be sacrificed whenever
there is a budget crunch or a parent loses a job, or, even if
you have insuranee, your lifetime limits are met. Those
conditions will be either illegal or completely eliminated.
~ost
agre~
While
people
that every citizen deserves
access to quality affordable health care, there has been
considerable dis~ussion about how such a system should be
structured. Weli, there are only three options if we really
mean what the Pr~sident says, that we should insure everybody
in America.
First, we can have a government-sponsored program,
and pay for it with tax money. ~econd, we can require
individuals to p*rchase their own· insurance, as some states
do with respect to auto insuranc~", Third, we can use'what we
now have, where~ost people who are insured get· their.
insurance at their work place. The employer and the employee
both pay. They ~hare the cost of the insurance premiums.
to~ay,
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And
9 out of 10 Americans with insurance get
it just that way! through their employers. It's a system
that works for most Americans. It does not require a major
tax increase, a~ I a government-sponsored system . would. And it
doesn't place the entire burden of paying for the insurance
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on the individual, which could result with an individual
mandate.
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The pr~sident's approach is built around the
employer-based system we use today, but it will be expanded
so that all employers and employees will participate and pay
their fair share~ An employer-employee mandate not only
makes sense econbmically and administratively, it also makes
sense when it co~es to children. It guarantees hard-working
parents that their employers cannot ever drop coverage for
them or their fa~ilies.
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And you must know the people that I know who are in
small and large businesses alike, who are told by the
insurance company,. well,that employer (sic) of yours just
gave birth .to a' !pown' Syndrome child. Oh, that employee of
yours, that family just discovered their child has diabetes.
We're going to have to drop that family from coverage, or
you're going to fuave to pay a whole lot more for everybody
else. That won't happen. Everybody will pay their fair
share, and no on~ will be eliminated from coverage.
While ihe President's approach makes employers
responsible for paying for a portion of their health care
premiums, it doesn't let employers decide which health plan.
employees ShOuldluse. That choice is left to each
individual. You will decide whiqh doctor or health plan best
suits your family's needs~
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And this has been one of the issues that has been
so distorted in the last few months.
In fact, if we do
nothing, if ther~ is no change in our health care system,
literally milliorts more of our people with health insurance
today will be told in the next months and years who they can
go to, what doct6rs they can see, what hospitals they can
use.' That's happening right now.
It is only through reform
and under the Pr~sident's plan t~at the individual will have
the choice.
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As child advocates know better than most, health
plans and health\problems are often rooted in other problems,
iike social problems, so the Pre$ident's proposal also
targets specific!services to high risk communities and
expands health equcation and counseling in the schools. This
is particularly important at a time when too many of our
children are turrting to drugs, alcohol and violence to escape
the grim circumstances of their own lives.
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As CDF has so often reminded our government
leaders: children today are besieged not just by poverty and
neglect, but als6 by violence. CDF's state of America's
children yearbook for 1994 painted a tragic picture. Fifty
thousand children have killed by firearms since 1979, nearly
the same number 6f casualties our nation endured in the
vietnam War.
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The equivalent of a classroom full of children dies
by gun violence 4very two days, and a child growing up in
America today isl15 times more likely to be killed by gunfire
than a child gro~ing up in Northern Ireland. This is a
public health epidemic that has to be addressed. Marion has
described this tragedy by saying our worst nightmares are
coming true, and! indeed, the crisis 'of. children killing.
children is .perhaps the most serious. health. crisis. facing our
nation today.
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The President's proposal is not a panacea. It will
not cure violenc~ or eradicate hunger overnight, but it is a
huge first step,la step toward protecting and nurturing our
nation's most precious resource, our children.
I know that health reform conjures up images of
change, and that change is sometimes very scary. I know
change can create feelings of uncertainty, but today we only
have two optionsl We can keep the status quo, a system that
doesn't work fori millions of children, or we can expand on
the good parts of our system, and fix what needs to be fixed.
~bout
Think.
our children and what thQse options
mean for them. They can't stand much more of the status quo.
Let's give Ameriea's children hope. Let's make them feel
secure. Let's db the hard work now so that our children's
futures will be brighter and healthier.
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You knlw, all during the campaign and during this
first year of my I husband's presidency, I've thought often
about that little prayer that you see on the front of the
podium where Mar~on spoke, that little prayer that has served
as the logo and tlhe guiding words for the Children's Defense
Fund: Dear Lord, please be good to me. The sea is so wide,
and my boat is sf small.
I think about it every day_ It applies not only to
children, whose boats are very small in a wide and turbulent
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sea, 1t app11es to all of us. What we need to do is to link
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hands together to make sure that all of us have a safe
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harbor, and that Ithat safe harbor is filled with the reality
that CDF and all of you believe we can make happen, where
children are healthy, educated, protected, and given a chance
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to be who God meant them to be. Thank you all very much.
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MS. EDELMAN: And we want to thank our
extraordinary Fitst Lady for that extraordinary address and
for your commitm~nt. She.has generously agreed to take a few
questions. So c~n we begin with our question?
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MS. HENDRICKSON: My name 1S Carolyn Hendr1ckson
(phonetic), and ±'m from Minneapolis. In Minnesota we began
health care reform with the Children's Health Plan. In the
Clinton plan, wh~t'happens'to a child's insurance when a
parent loses ~herl or his job?' .
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MRS. CLINTON: The child and the parents remain
insured under th~ President's plan. No one will ever lose
insurance again. What will happen is,that when a parent .is
working, the parent will contrib~te to the premiums that will
cover himself orlherself and the children, and when a parent
loses the job that you've just referred to, the family will
continue to be irtsured through contributions from tax'money.
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And thlt is the way: it should be. No one should
ever lose insurartce because they lose their job. And so the
parents and the bhildren will be insured through times of
unemployment.
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MS. EDELMAN:
Is there another question?
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MS. FORD: I am Alma Ray Ford from New Orleans,
Louisiana. What can children's advocates do to help get the
President's plan passed?
MRS. CLINTON: Oh, thank you. Thank you for asking
me. There are s6 many steps that children's advocates can
take. The firstl is. to make sure that what you know about
what happens in your'communities is well known to others.
I am alazed that there are people in our country
who do not know that the vast majority of uninsured Americans
work hard every day. They just don't work for somebody who
provides insuranpe. I am amazed that people don't know that
so many of our children who are insured do not have insurance
policies that corer well child care, or immunization or other
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preventive care.
happening.
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So get the word out about what's really
Secondly, visit your members of congress and your
senators. Every Itime they are back in your district, make
sure they hear from children's advocates, not just from
people who want the status quo to continue. Write to them,
call them. Be t~ere every step of the way so they know that
people are watching what they do for children.
And filallY, make sure that as we. move forward in
Jthis you ask the hard questions. The congressional process
. has to work, and that means people will be arguing back and
'forth, .and, there will be give and take. The. President has
said he will' not .sign.a bill that does.not. guarantee everyone
insurance, insurance that you keep if you lose a job,
insurance • that y6u keep if you move from Minneapolis to New
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Orleans, ~nsuranee that can never be taken away, w~th
comprehensive bertefits.
Keep eterYbOdY honest in this debate. Don't let
·them tell you they're for universal coverage but they won't
·tell you how it ~ill be paid for. Don't let them tell you
'they're for universal access. We've got access, now. I
:mean,. it's like ~aying I could go buy a Mercedes Benz. I've
rgot access to itt I just couldn't afford it.
Make sure you keep everybody honest so that,
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children are not I forgotten and we take care of children's
health needs, because that's what the President is trying to
get done.
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MS. EDELMAN:
One last question?
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MS. LANHAM: My names ~s Lesl~e Lanham (phonet~c),
and I'm from Austin, Texas. The President's plan seems to
emphasize prevention. Besides immunizations, what other
kinds of things ~re in the plan that will promote prevention
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and therefore save money?
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MRS. CLINTON: The ~mportant part of the benef~ts
the President ha~ proposed is that we do emphasize prevention
for both childreh and adults. I've never understood -- and I
have to tell you I, I -- I guess I never paid attention to it
until I had my own daughter -- that my insurance policy
wouldn't reimbur~e us for taking the child to get the well
child checkup, bht if she got sick they'd pay to take her to
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the em~rgency r09m or to have something done to her.
never made any sense to me.
That
So we,Je going to be covering well-child checkups,
and not just forllittle children, for children al~ the way
through adolescence, because, you know, there is probably no
group of Americaris that are more neglected by our health care
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system'than our teenagers. And so we need to make sure our
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teenagers get decent health care as well. (Applause.)
So we Jave provided for visits to the physician for
checkups and well-child care, for the immunizations that you
mentioned, for the tests that would be needed that are not as
prevalent among Jhildren as they are among adults, like
mammograms and p~p smears, and cholesterol screenings, but
the important me~sage is prenatal care, well-child care,
immunizations --Iare part of insurance for the very first
time for every American child. And that is so important. We
have to keep that in the benefits package.
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
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1993 - 1997
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<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>
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