COMMITTEE PRINT RISING OUT-OF-POCKET HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR OLDER AMERICANS: HOW FAR Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Aging This document has been printed for informational purposes only. It does 37-528 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office AM SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California, Chairman THOMAS J. DOWNEY, New York BUTLER DERRICK, South Carolina GEO. W. CROCKETT, JR., Michigan ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia THOMAS J. MANTON, New York JAMES MCCLURE CLARKE, North Carolina JIM JONTZ, Indiana JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois HARLEY O. STAGGERS, JR., West Virginia FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey JOLENE UNSOELD, Washington PETER A. DEFAZIO, Oregon JOHN LEWIS, Georgia WAYNE OWENS, Utah MATTHEW J. RINALDO, New Jersey, JOHN PAUL HAMMERSCHMIDT, Arkansas NORMAN D. SHUMWAY, California CLAUDINE SCHNEIDER, Rhode Island HELEN DELICH BENTLEY, Maryland HARRIS W. FAWELL, Illinois BEN BLAZ, Guam PAUL B. HENRY, Michigan BILL SCHUETTE, Michigan FLOYD SPENCE, South Carolina WILLIAM F. CLINGER, JR., Pennsylvania CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland PATRICIA F. SAIKI, Hawaii JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee CRAIG T. JAMES, Florida Paul R. Langevin, Jr., Assistant Commissioner of Health Facilities Evalua- tion, State of New Jersey, testifying for Dr. Francis Dunston, Commission- er, Department of Health, State of New Jersey.... Steven C. Edelstein, Professional Staff Member, U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care, the "Pepper Commission". Joseph Riordan, President, United Senior Alliance...... Frank Laracy, President, United Auto Workers, Shore Council of Retirees, Additional material received for the record: John V. Jacobi, Esq., Staff Attorney, New Jersey Public Advocate, prepared (III) 111 RISING OUT-OF-POCKET HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR OLDER AMERICANS: HOW FAR CAN CONSUMERS STRETCH THEIR RESOURCES? MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1990 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND CONSUMER INTERESTS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:54 a.m., at the Holiday City Phase II Clubhouse, 1846 Yorktown Boulevard, Toms River, NJ, Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr. (acting chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Members present: Representative Pallone. Staff present: Brian Lindberg, Staff Director, and Molly Brault, Professional Staff, Subcommittee on Housing and Consumer Interests. Jim McCann, District Representative, Congressman Pallone's Toms River Congressional District. STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE FRANK PALLONE, JR. Mr. PALLONE. We are about to begin. I want to apologize that I was late today. I guess many of you probably know that Congress has been in session now, I guess, about 3 weeks straight, including over the weekend, and we've finally resolved the budget, I guess it was yesterday in the early morning hours, Sunday morning, so things have been a little hectic. But one of the reasons that we wanted to have this hearing today was basically because of what has been happening in Washington with regard to the Federal budget and how that might affect seniors, particularly with regard to the Medicare issue. Really, the whole purpose of this hearing today is to try to pinpoint how far we can go with Medicare in terms of seniors' ability to pay for services and how far we can stretch the program with cutbacks that have been proposed and still have a viable Medicare or health care program for seniors. Now, I'm sure you know that during the recent debate over the budget, Medicare was targeted as a primary source of deficit reduction. And, as you may recall, the original budget deficit reduction package that was negotiated by congressional leaders and President Bush relied heavily on cuts in the Medicare program, some $60 billion-over half of all the entitlement cuts. Under that original plan, Medicare recipients would be required to pay 30 percent of the cost of the Medicare Part B program-the present premium is based on 25 percent of the program's cost-and (1) |