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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1995)
Tuesday • April 11, 1995 The Battalion • Page 11 Experts fear Medicare faces bankruptcy □ Proposals by Clin ton and Congress at tempt to prolong Medicare programs. WASHINGTON (AP) — The prognosis for Medicare was grave in its latest checkup. Bankruptcy by 2002. So what did the Clinton ad ministration prescribe? A com mission to study the problem. “A complete abdication of re sponsibility,” said Senate Major ity Leader Bob Dole. So what was the first thing the GOP-controlled House did to Medicare? It rolled back a tax increase on affluent seniors that will put the hospital insurance trust fund $49 billion deeper in the hole over the next 10 years. GOP leaders who have shied away from touching Social Secu rity, the biggest of the entitle ment programs, are fixing to fix Medicare, hoping to shore up its finances and reduce the federal deficit by cutting its growth rate. They may ratchet back on fees for physicians, hospitals and nursing homes, make beneficia ries pay more and steer more se niors into managed care. Details are still being worked out, but Dole has talked about saving $148 billion over five years. Last year Clinton proposed saving hundreds of billions from these programs for the el derly, disabled and poor as part of his plan to guarantee cover age for all Americans. Congress rejected the complex scheme and Democrats were routed in last November’s elec tions. A chastened president sent Congress a 1996 budget with not a dime in new Medicare cuts. Let the Republicans pre scribe the tough medicine this time, he seemed to be saying. House Speaker Newt Gin grich, R-Ga., has said Medicare must be rethought “from the ground up,” but assured the el derly his approach will offer them more choices, not take away their traditional, fee-for- service coverage. Most Americans are being swept by their employers into managed-care plans, which hold down medical bills by discourag ing lengthy hospital stays and re stricting access to specialists. The elderly, like their grown sons and daughters, will probably wind up paying more for choice. A dozen years ago, the trustees were warning “the drop- dead date was 1990,” said John Rother, legislative director for the American Association of Re tired Persons. “The idea that in seven years this catastrophe is going to happen has been basi cally true for the past 15 years.” Congress has pushed back the day of reckoning by nips and tucks at the providers’ payments. The trustees’ report says that extending Medicare’s prospec tive payment system and limit ing pay increases “could post pone the depletion of the (hospi tal) trust fund for about another 5 to 10 years.” Without a major overhaul, the bubble will burst when the baby boom generation enters its gold en years starting in 2010. That’s a problem that Con gress must face up to eventually. Hospital denies liability in child case □ The brain damaged boy is to remain hos pitalized until a settle ment is reached. MIAMI (AP) — Justin Bates was a baby when he was rushed to a hospital with an asthma at tack 10 years ago. He has been there ever since, unable to see, speak or walk. A bureaucratic battle has kept the semi-comatose boy, now 11, institutionalized while his family tries to bring him home. Cynthia Mendat has tried for years to get the money needed for home care for her son, who suffered severe brain damage in 1985 when his oxygen supply was cut off because of an improp erly inserted ventilator tube. The hospital is run by the North Broward Hospital District, a county agency. And Florida law says government entities cannot be held responsible for more than $200,000 without leg islative approval. “There’s no amount of money that could compensate her for losing her child, essentially,” said House Claims Committee member Steve Feren. “But deal ing with taxpayer dollars, we have to try to come up with something that’s fair and rea sonable to provide for the child and mother.” Justin’s case has been cited as an example of how laws that try to protect taxpayers by lim iting the liability of government agencies can backfire against the neediest people. Broward said its other patients would suffer if it had to make the full pay ment for the boy. “You’re looking at the rights of the individual weighed against the needs of society,” said Dr. Pat Caralis, chair woman of the ethics committee at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. “You want to be fair to the individual. This young man will have to be cared for for the rest of his life, and he needs money. You weigh that against the cost of providing care for all the indigent people in North Broward, and you can see that these are difficult things to decide.” "You're looking at the rights of the individual weighed against the needs of society." — Dr. Pat Caralis, chairwoman of ethics committee This classic strip and hundreds more are in The Legend of Tubularman, 2nd Edition. On Sale Now at bookstores everywhere © 1995 Boomer Cardinale -V'JatiM rj< tt( ’ iT! n It’s One Of The Most Useful Credit Cards On The ; - -y; $ jk 'tSz - Planet. Unless You've Stolen It. Your MasterCard** is stolen. You panic. You ■ Masti get angry. You panic some more. Then you call and cancel it. Now the thief is m possession SHIS 3HSb IB 0000 THRU 2. / SAHOY SLASH* of, oh, about seven cents worth of stolen plastic. (Maybe he can use it as a coaster when he entertains at the hideout.) So relax. 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