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
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