Y 4.Ag4/2: N42j/4 THE FUTURE OF MEDICARE: N.J. HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING NINETY-EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MARCH 28, 1983, PRINCETON, N.J. Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Aging SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California, Chairman CLAUDE PEPPER, Florida GERALDINE A. FERRARO, New York HENRY A. WAXMAN, California BUTLER DERRICK, South Carolina BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts RON WYDEN, Oregon DONALD JOSEPH ALBOSTA, Michigan GEO. W. CROCKETT, JR., Michigan WILLIAM HILL BONER, Tennessee IKE SKELTON, Missouri DENNIS M. HERTEL, Michigan ROBERT A. BORSKI, Pennsylvania FREDERICK C. (RICK) BOUCHER, Virginia BEN ERDREICH, Alabama BUDDY MACKAY, Florida MATTHEW J. RINALDO, New Jersey, JOHN PAUL HAMMERSCHMIDT, Arkansas NORMAN D. SHUMWAY, California JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire JAMES A. COURTER, New Jersey LYLE WILLIAMS, Ohio CLAUDINE SCHNEIDER, Rhode Island JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona MICHAEL BILIRAKIS, Florida CONTENTS MEMBERS' OPENING STATEMENTS CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES Carolyne K. Davis, Ph. D., Administrator, Health Care Financing Administra- tion, Department of Health and Human Services.... Panel one-Medicare Reform from the Perspective of Beneficiaries: Herbert Miller, chairman, New Jersey Coordinating Council of Organized Peter M. Shields, director, Union County Division on Aging, Department of Human Resources, County of Union, N.J., prepared statement... American Association of Retired Persons on "The Administration's Fiscal Year 1984 Budget Proposals in Health Care," prepared statement. Milton Wilkotz, State chairman, Health Security Action Council, Toms Lucille A. Joel, Ed. D., F.A.A.N., president, New Jersey State Nurses Association, and professor and director of Clinical Affairs, Rutgers Jack Rafferty, mayor, Hamilton, N.J., prepared statement New Jersey Gerontological Society, prepared statement THE FUTURE OF MEDICARE: N.J. MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1983 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES, Princeton, N.J. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in the council chambers of Princeton Borough Hall on Monument Drive, Princeton, N.J., Hon. Matthew J. Rinaldo (acting chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Members present: Representatives Rinaldo of New Jersey and Smith of New Jersey. Staff present: Paul Schlegel, minority staff director, and Richard Bagger, minority professional staff. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN MATTHEW J. RINALDO Mr. RINALDO. Good morning. This hearing of the House Select Committee on Aging will now come to order. We are here this morning to hear testimony on the future of medicare. In July 1965, Congress added title XVIII to the Social Security Act to provide health insurance for the aged and disabled. The preamble of this historic piece of legislation declared that "access to quality health care is the right of all Americans regardless of age or ability to pay." Today, medicare provides health coverage to 30 million Americans. It is projected to spend about $60 billion in the coming year. In fact, medicare in 1983 will spend more in any given month than it did in the entire first year of its operation, 1966. But we are approaching a crisis. Health care costs continue to skyrocket. They are the only segment of the economy still experiencing double-digit inflation. Over the past 5 years, medicare costs have averaged a staggering 19 percent. Over the program's history, cost increases have outpaced the consumer price index by better than 2 to 1. That inflation is a ticking time bomb for the medicare trust fund. Just last month, the Congressional Budget Office released a report showing that the medicare hospital insurance fund would be depleted in just 4 years, by 1987. CBO projections show that the system will have a cumulative deficit of almost $400 billion in 1995. The deficit will be $70 billion each year by the middle of the next decade. The question we must face, and the question that hopefully we can get some answers to this morning, is: How do we protect health benefits for the elderly? (1) |