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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 19, 2000 
                    CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS
                   MAJOR NEW HEALTH INSURANCE INITIATIVE
                             January 19, 2000

Today, President Clinton will unveil a 10-year, $110 billion initiative that would dramatically improve the affordability of and access to health insurance. The proposal would expand coverage to at least 5 million uninsured Americans and expand access to millions more. It addresses the nation's multi-faceted coverage challenges by building on and complementing current private and public programs. Specifically, the initiative will: (1) provide a new, affordable health insurance option for families; (2) accelerate enrollment of uninsured children eligible for Medicaid and S-CHIP; (3) expand health insurance options for Americans facing unique barriers to coverage; and (4) strengthen programs that provide health care directly to the uninsured.

The Challenge of the Uninsured and Its Implications. Over 44 million Americans lack health insurance. Although there are many causes of this problem, it generally results from lack of affordability and/or access to coverage. Family health insurance premiums cost on average $5,700 -- which represents a large share of income for a family trying to make ends meet. Purchasing affordable, accessible insurance is a particular challenge for many older people, workers in transitions between jobs, and small businesses and their employees. Lacking health insurance has serious consequences. The uninsured are three times as likely not to receive needed medical care, 50 to 70 percent more likely to need hospitalization for avoidable hospital conditions like pneumonia or uncontrolled diabetes, and four times more likely to rely on an emergency room or have no regular source of care than the privately insured.

The President's four-pronged initiative significantly expands coverage and improves access by:

I. providing A NEW, affordable health insurance OPTION FOR families ($76 billion over 10 years, about 4 million uninsured covered). Over 80 percent of parents of uninsured children with incomes below 200 percent of poverty (about $33,000 for a family of four) are themselves uninsured. Yet, while states have aggressively expanded insurance options for children through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), parents are often left behind. There are about 6.5 million uninsured parents with income in the Medicaid and S-CHIP eligibility range for children. These parents frequently do not have access to employer-based insurance, and when they do, cannot afford it. Recognizing that family coverage not only helps a large proportion of the nation's uninsured adults but increases the enrollment of children, the Vice President, the National Governors' Association, and a wide range of groups including Families USA and the Health Insurance Association of America have called for building on S-CHIP to cover parents. The Administration's budget adopts this approach by:

II. acceleratING enrollment of uninsured children eligible for Medicaid and S-CHIP ($5.5 billion over 10 years, an additional 400,000 uninsured children covered). The State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) helps children in families with income too high to be eligible for Medicaid but too low to afford private insurance. Enrollment in S-CHIP doubled to 2 million children in 1999. However, despite this encouraging trend, millions of children remain eligible but unenrolled in both S-CHIP and Medicaid. The Administration's budget includes ideas advocated by the Vice President that would give states needed tools to increase coverage by:

III. EXPANDING health insurance options for AMERICANS facing unique barriers to coverage ($28.7 billion over 10 years, about 600,000 million uninsured people covered). Some vulnerable groups of Americans lack access to employer-sponsored insurance and insurance programs like Medicare or Medicaid. These include older Americans, people in transition (between jobs, turning 19 and entering the workforce, leaving welfare for work), and workers in small businesses. This plan addresses these and other problems by:

IV. STRENGTHENING Programs that Provide Health Care Directly to the Uninsured (At least $1 billion over 10 years). In the absence of a universal health insurance system, public hospitals, clinics, and thousands of health care providers give health care of the uninsured and receive inadequate compensation for doing so. Despite a rising need, reductions in government spending and aggressive cost cutting by private insurers has left less money in the health care system to address these needs. The President will renew his commitment to helping these providers by:

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