PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE October 6, 1996 Transcript

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JIM LEHRER: Senator Dole, you mentioned health reform several times. What do you think should be done about the health care system?

MR. DOLE: Let me first answer that question about the 1982 tax cut. You know, we were closing loopholes. We were going after big corporations. I know you probably would oppose it, Mr. President, but I think we should have a fair system and a flatter system, and we'll have a fairer, flatter system, and we're going to make the economic package work.

Health care? Well, we finally passed the Kassebaum bill. The president was opposed to it in 1993. He wanted to give us this big system that took over about one-seventh of the economy, that put on price controls, created all these state alliances, and would cost $1.5 trillion and force people into managed care whether they wanted it or not. Most people want to see their own doctor. They're going to see their own doctor when Bob Dole is president. We won't threaten anybody.

So we passed the Kennedy-Kassebaum -- Kassebaum-Kennedy bill. That'll cover about 20 million to 25 million people. We've been for that for four or five or six years. The president held it up. And even when it finally got near passage, Senator Kennedy held it up for 100 days because he wasn't satisfied with one provision.

But it will cover preexisting condition. If you change your job, you're going to be covered. So there are a lot of good things in this bill that we should have done instead of trying this massive, massive takeover by the federal government. But then, of course, we had a Democratic Congress and they didn't want to do that. Till we got a Republican Congress, we finally got action, and I'm very proud of my colleagues in the Republican Party for getting that done. It means a lot to a lot of people watching us tonight.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, that sounds very good, but it's very wrong. Senator Dole remembers well that we actually offered not to even put in a health care bill in 1994 -- '93, but instead, to work with the Senate Republicans and write a joint bill. And they said no, because they got a memo from one of their political advisers saying that instead, they should characterize whatever we did as ``big government'' and make sure nothing was done to aid health care before the '94 elections so they could make that claim.

Well, maybe we bit off more than we could chew, but we're pursuing a step-by-step reform now.

The Kennedy-Kassebaum bill that I signed will make it possible for 25 million people to keep their health insurance when they change jobs or when somebody in their family has been sick. I signed a bill to stop these drive-by deliveries where insurance companies can force people out of the hospital after 24 hours, and I vetoed Senator Dole's Medicare plan that would have forced a lot of seniors into managed care, and taken a lot more money out of their pockets, and led to Medicare withering on the vine.

JIM LEHRER: Senator?

MR. DOLE: Well, many of the provisions in the Kassebaum bill were provisions -- my provisions, like deductions for long-term care, making certain that self-employed people who are watching tonight can deduct not 30 percent, but 80 percent you pay for premiums. You can also deduct long-term care now, so it's a good start.

I think -- we're even looking at our tax-cut proposal, our economic package. There may be a way there to reach out to the uninsured because there are a lot of uninsured people in this country, particular children, that should be covered.

Another way you can do it is to expand Medicaid. In America, no one will go without health care, no one will go without food.

JIM LEHRER: Senator -- go ahead and finish your sentence.

MR. DOLE: Food.

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