USA TODAY
TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1994
[Headline] Clinton takes healthcare pitch to disabled
By Judi Hasson and Judy Keen
President Clinton discussed his campaign for health-care reform Monday with some of the people who may need it most, the disabled.

Even though his plan would not immediately give the dis-abled as much long-term care as they want, the president told 125 people, many of them in wheelchairs, his proposal must be passed now.

"Otherwise, the forces of disinformation organized disinformation will think that the American people actually prefer to have the most expensive, wasteful, bureaucratically cumbersome health-care financing system on the entire face of the Earth," he said.

Clinton lashed out at radio and TV ads criticizing his plan. "What do our adversaries say: We're trying to have the government take over the health-care system. False."

He said his plan would provide "private insurance, private providers, empowerment for this man, this woman, these children, their families and their future."

Clinton's plan would phase in community-based alternatives to nursing homes and provide a tax credit for 50% of care services, up to $15,000 a year. Disabled groups want, but probably won't get, immediate coverage for care-givers who go to their homes.

Disabled groups from 26 states were in Washington to protest insurers' limits on their benefits. "Free our people! Free our people!" the crowd yelled after Clinton spoke.

After their stop at the White House, the disabled activists led a procession to the Lincoln Memorial for a rally.

Clinton's pitch was the start of another week of campaigning for his reform bill.

Also Monday, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a supermarket that provides insurance for its workers.

"Other people who are competing with you have not paid
for health insurance," she said. "It is time everybody paid."

Today, small-business owners will be at the White House supporting Clinton's controversial proposal requiring all businesses to Trey 80% of the cost of their workers insurance.

Meanwhile, a coalition sup-porting a major switch to a gov-ernment-financed health-care system Monday unveiled its own version of "Harry and Louise" TV ads.

The characters, a creation of the insurance industry, are be-coming two of the most imitat-ed people on the air.

Advocates of a "single-pay-er" health system like Canada's — where the government collects taxes and pays negotiated fees to cover all the doctor and hospital bills — launched a campaign parodying the yup-pie couple scared about what reform will mean.

The president and first lady did their own video spoof of "Harry and Louise" last month for a Washington press dinner.

In the new version, comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Mean play husband and wife as they are in real life.

In one ad, Mears recalls Harry and Louise's theme— "There's got to be a better way." And Stiller answers: "There is. The single-payer sys-tern where everyone's covered, you get full benefits and you choose your doctor."

[Headline] First lady picks a pepper, rice, mango and support
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton turned first grocery shopper Monday and revealed herself to be an average, if health-conscious, consumer.

Defending her husband's health-team plan and its reliance on employer-paid Insurance at a Safeway supermarket in Washington, Clinton paused to pick up a few things.

'This sounds funny, but even when my husband was governor, I'd go to the store, and I felt like a normal person," she told late-morning shoppers and store worker's, "My daughter and I would go up and down the aisles, and we'd buy things, and we'd take it home and cook it...

"I know this sounds funny, especially for the women in the audience, that you would ever miss going to the store, buying things, and taking them home and cooking them. But trust me, you would."


[Image caption:] By J. Scott Appiesvhite, AP. In Washington, D.C.: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton shops at a grocery store.

So after remarks on the benefits of requiring employer-paid insurance, Clinton picked up a red handbasket and made like a regular shopper -- with a dozen cameras trailing.

She picked out a mango, a jicama root she planned to use in a dip and a pasilla pepper. Then she grabbed a bagel, brown rice, two cans of tuna, some non-fat sour cream, two biscotti and a small container of fiesta salad. At the checkout, Clinton grabbed three magazines Woman's Day, Family Circle and Reader's Digest — and paid the $15.50 tab with a $20 bill from her pocketbook.

--Richard Wolf

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Tuesday 16 July 2013

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Wednesday 7 August 2019

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