pd07se98 Statement on the Northwest Airlines Pilots Strike...

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September 1, 1998

    I join Prime Ministers Blair and Ahern in welcoming today's 
statement by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams committing to exclusively 
democratic and peaceful means in the political process in Northern 
Ireland. Sinn Fein joins its voice to the vast majority of Northern 
Ireland's people who are determined to see, in Mr. Adams' words, that 
``violence is a thing of the past, over, done with, and gone.'' This 
statement is an important contribution to building the trust and 
confidence necessary to make the Good Friday accord a reality.
    I am looking forward to meeting personally with all the party 
leaders in Northern Ireland. I will urge them to work for full and 
speedy implementation of the Good Friday accord--the best way to put an 
end to conflict and ensure peace in Northern Ireland.


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[Page 1683]
 
Monday, September 7, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 36
Pages 1667-1730
 
Week Ending Friday, September 4, 1998
 
Statement on Harold Ickes' 1996 Campaign Financing Activities

September 1, 1998

    Harold Ickes has been an important part of this administration's 
efforts to move our country forward and has devoted much of his life to 
improving the lives of all Americans. He has been a trusted adviser and 
a dedicated public servant. I am confident that investigators will find 
he acted lawfully and appropriately.


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[Page 1683-1684]
 
Monday, September 7, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 36
Pages 1667-1730
 
Week Ending Friday, September 4, 1998
 
Statement on Senate Action on Appropriations Legislation

September 1, 1998

    For the past month, I have criticized the House Republican education 
and training budget because it shortchanges America's future. Today I am 
pleased that a bipartisan group of Senators voted to reject parts of the 
extreme House Republican education and

[[Page 1684]]

training budget and make many--but not all--of the critical investments 
in our future that I believe are necessary for America to succeed in the 
21st century. This afternoon the Senate Labor-HHS appropriations 
subcommittee voted to restore full funding for home heating and cooling 
assistance for low-income families and summer jobs for disadvantaged 
youth. Unlike the House Republican budget, they voted to make many of 
the essential investments in our children for which I have been 
fighting.
    The Senate subcommittee, however, did not adequately fund several 
education and training investments that I believe are vitally important 
to our Nation's future. For example, they did not provide the resources 
necessary for us to move forward to ensure that every 8-year-old can 
read on his or her own and every 12-year-old can log on to the 
information superhighway. The Senate bill is a good first step, but 
there is still more work to do.
    I look forward to working with the Senate on this bill to expand 
educational opportunity, improve child care, set voluntary national 
academic standards, protect continuity in critical health programs, and 
help young people in high-poverty areas. Finally, as I have said before, 
Congress must take action to modernize our schools and help provide 
smaller classes with well-qualified teachers.


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[Page 1684-1685]
 
Monday, September 7, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 36
Pages 1667-1730
 
Week Ending Friday, September 4, 1998
 
Letter to the Majority Leader of the Senate on the Patients' Bill of 
Rights

September 1, 1998

Dear Senator Lott:

    Thank you for your letter regarding the patients' bill of rights. I 
am pleased to reiterate my commitment to working with you--and all 
Republicans and Democrats in the Congress--to pass long overdue 
legislation this year.
    Since last November, I have called on the Congress to pass a strong, 
enforceable, and bipartisan patients' bill of rights. During this time, 
I signed an Executive Memorandum to ensure that the 85 million Americans 
in federal health plans receive the patient protections they need, and I 
have indicated my support for bipartisan legislation that would extend 
these protections to all Americans. With precious few weeks remaining 
before the Congress adjourns, we must work together to respond to the 
nation's call for us to improve the quality of health care Americans are 
receiving.
    As I mentioned in my radio address this past Saturday, ensuring 
basic patient protections is not and should not be a political issue. I 
was therefore disappointed by the partisan manner in which the Senate 
Republican Leadership bill was developed. The lack of consultation with 
the White House or any Democrats during the drafting of your legislation 
contributed to its serious shortcomings and the fact it has failed to 
receive the support of either patients or doctors. The bill leaves 
millions of Americans without critical patient protections, contains 
provisions that are more rhetorical than substantive, completely omits 
patient protections that virtually every expert in the field believes 
are basic and essential, and includes ``poison pill'' provisions that 
have nothing to do with a patients' bill of rights. More specifically, 
the bill:
    Does not cover all health plans and leaves more than 100 million 
Americans completely unprotected. The provisions in the Senate 
Republican Leadership bill apply only to self-insured plans. As a 
consequence, the bill leaves out more than 100 million Americans, 
including millions of workers in small businesses. This approach 
contrasts with the bipartisan Kassebaum-Kennedy insurance reform law, 
which provided a set of basic protections for all Americans.
    Lets HMOs, not health professionals, define medical necessity. The 
external appeals process provision in the Senate Republican Leadership 
bill makes the appeals process meaningless by allowing the HMOs 
themselves, rather than informed health professionals, to define what 
services are medically necessary. This loophole will make it very 
difficult for patients to prevail on appeals to get the treatment 
doctors believe they need.
    Fails to guarantee direct access to specialists. The Senate 
Republican Leadership proposal fails to ensure that patients with 
serious health problems have direct access to the

[[Page 1685]]

specialists they need. We believe that patients with conditions like 
cancer or heart disease should not be denied access to the doctors they 
need to treat their conditions.
    Fails to protect patients from abrupt changes in care in the middle 
of treatment. The Senate Republican Leadership bill fails to assure 
continuity-of-care protections when an employer changes health plans. 
This deficiency means that, for example, pregnant women or individuals 
undergoing care for a chronic illness may have their care suddenly 
altered mid course, potentially causing serious health consequences.
    Reverses course on emergency room protections. The Senate Republican 
Leadership bill backs away from the emergency room protections that 
Congress implemented in a bipartisan manner for Medicare and Medicaid 
beneficiaries in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The bill includes a 
watered-down provision that does not require health plans to cover 
patients who go to an emergency room outside their network and does not 
ensure coverage for any treatment beyond an initial screening. These 
provisions put patients at risk for the huge costs associated with 
critical emergency treatment.
    Allows financial incentives to threaten critical patient care. The 
Senate Republican Leadership bill fails to prohibit secret financial 
incentives to providers. This would leave patients vulnerable to 
financial incentives that limit patient care.
    Fails to hold health plans accountable when their actions cause 
patients serious harm. The proposed per-day penalties in the Senate 
Republican Leadership bill fail to hold health plans accountable when 
patients suffer serious harm or even death because of a plan's wrongful 
action. For example, if a health plan improperly denies a lifesaving 
cancer treatment to a child, it will incur a penalty only for the number 
of days it takes to reverse its decision; it will not have to pay the 
family for all the damages the family will suffer as the result of 
having a child with a now untreatable disease. And because the plan will 
not have to pay for all the harm it causes, it will have insufficient 
incentive to change its health care practices in the future.
    Includes ``poison pill'' provisions that have nothing to do with a 
patients' bill of rights. For example, expanding Medical Savings 
Accounts (MSAs) before studying the current demonstration is premature, 
at best, and could undermine an already unstable insurance market. As I 
have said before, I would veto a bill that does not address these 
serious flaws. I could not sanction presenting a bill to the American 
people that is nothing more than an empty promise. At the same time, as 
I have repeatedly made clear, I remain fully committed to working with 
you, as well as the Democratic Leadership, to pass a meaningful 
patients' bill of rights before the Congress adjourns. We can make 
progress in this area if, and only if, we work together to provide 
needed health care protections to ensure Americans have much needed 
confidence in their health care system.
    Producing a patients' bill of rights that can attract bipartisan 
support and receive my signature will require a full and open debate on 
the Senate floor. There must be adequate time and a sufficient number of 
amendments to ensure that the bill gives patients the basic protections 
they need and deserve. I am confident that you and Senator Daschle can 
work out a process that accommodates the scheduling needs of the Senate 
and allows you to address fully the health care needs of the American 
public.
    Last year, we worked together in a bipartisan manner to pass a 
balanced budget including historic Medicare reforms and the largest 
investment in children's health care since the enactment of Medicaid. 
This year, we have another opportunity to work together to improve 
health care for millions of Americans.
    I urge you to make the patients' bill of rights the first order of 
business for the Senate. Further delay threatens the ability of the 
Congress to pass a bill that I can sign into law this year. I stand 
ready to work with you and Senator Daschle to ensure that patients--not 
politics--are our first priority.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this letter.

[[Page 1686]]


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[Page 1686-1693]
 
Monday, September 7, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 36
Pages 1667-1730
 
Week Ending Friday, September 4, 1998
 
The President's News Conference With President Boris Yeltsin of Russia 
in Moscow

September 2, 1998

    President Yeltsin. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the official 
visit of the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, to Russia is 
coming to an end. We have had intensive, productive negotiations. We 
have managed to discuss a wide range of topical issues. I would like to 
emphasize the exchanges were sincere and keen. The dialog was marked by 
the spirit of mutual understanding.
    Responsibility of our two countries for maintaining and 
strengthening peace and stability is obvious. That is why we have paid 
special attention to the discussion of the entire spectrum of security 
issues in the world.
    The discussion has included the implementation of international and 
bilateral treaties and agreements concerning the weapons of mass 
destruction, as well as the elaboration of common approaches to dealing 
with the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation and their delivery 
means.
    Unfortunately, this is not the only major task the humanity 
struggles to resolve. That is why President Clinton and I have discussed 
global threats and challenges. Our positions on this issue have 
coincided, and this closeness of approaches is reflected in the joint 
statement on common security changes on the threshold of the 21st 
century. I consider this document to be a significant step towards 
strengthening strategic partnership between Russia and the United 
States.
    We have also had substantial talks on the most topical international 
issues. And there are quite a few such issues. I'll put it frankly: Here 
our approaches have not always completely coincided. Russia rejects the 
use of power methods as a matter of principle. Conflicts of today have 
no military solutions, be it in Kosovo or around Iraq or Afghanistan or 
others. Also we do not accept the NATO centrism idea for the new 
European security architecture. Nevertheless, our talks have been 
conducive to greater mutual understanding on these issues.
    Of course, we could not do without discussing economy problems. 
Current dimensions of our economic relations should be brought up to a 
qualitatively new level. We shall have to suffer through much blood, 
sweat, and tears before new forms of business cooperation worthy of our 
two great powers are found, reforms that would be able to withstand 
volatile circumstances. There exist quite a few opportunities for this. 
These are mentioned in our joint statement on economic issues.
    In conclusion, I would like to say--and I hope Bill will agree with 
me--the summit was a success. This meeting, the 15th in a row, confirmed 
once again when Presidents of Russia and the United States join their 
efforts, no issue is too big for them.
    Thank you for your kind attention.
    President Clinton. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your 
hospitality and for giving Hillary and me and our team the chance to 
come to Moscow again.
    Over the past 5 years I have been in this great, historic city in 
times of bright hope and times of uncertainty. But throughout, I have 
witnessed the remarkable transformation of this nation to democracy and 
to a more open economy. We all know that this meeting comes at a 
challenging time for the Russian people. But I don't believe anyone 

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