GOP House leaders offer plan to keep Medicare --. s,,,, -,-, - a 7 Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - House Republi- can leaders offered a blueprint yester- day for keeping Medicare solvent by steadily increasing out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries and setting severe new limits on government payments to doc- tors and hospitals. The most affluent elderly - indi- viduals with incomes ofatleast $75,000 and couples with more than $150,000 would be forced to bear a hefty increase in their monthly premiums. For the rest, the typical Medicare re- cipient would pay about $90 a month by 2002 for the insurance that covers doc- tors' bills, compared with $46.10 now. In an attempt to avoid antagonizing elderly voters, Republicans went else- where for the bulk of the total savings - $270 billion over the next seven years - to rescue Medicare and help balance the federal budget. They said they expected substantial savings as millions of persons moved into health maintenance organizations and other forms of managed care. But they proposed no direct incen- tives or pressures on recipients to switch from visiting the doctors of their choice to enrolling in health plans that would limit their choice. Contrary to expecta- tions, they did not propose to add to the elderly's share of payments to doctors. The biggest share of savings would come from a strict system of annual, government-set ceilings on Medicare payments to hospitals, doctors, home health care agencies and laboratories. If spending exceeded the goal in any year, the government would cut payments to health care providers in the following year. The2I-page Republi'can information packet, sketchy on details, offered no specific numbers on how the $270 bil- lion in savings will be achieved. House and Senate committees will begin meeting next week to add the additional details necessary to turn the leadership blueprint into legislation. The Republican leaders said their plan offered avastnew world of choices for those enrolled in Medicare - per- sons over 65 and the disabled of all ages. Each year, beneficiaries would receive a booklet listing government- approved health plans in the local area. . "Beneficiaries will simply check off the plan of their choice," the Republi- 'U' professor to address seniors' concerns at Medicare forum today By Michelle Lee Thompso Daily Staff Reporter Spurned by Republicans' pro- posed cuts to Medicare, a University professor will address the concerns of the Ann Arbor Citizens Council today at 4 p.m. today at the School of Public Health. Prof. Richard Lichtenstein will speak at a forum called, "Medicare: Where Do We Go From Here?"> "The main focus of the conference is to figure out what is proposed for Medicare in the Republican proposal," Lichtenstein said, adding that he hopes to critically address Washington law- makers' solutions.: "(The proposed reform) could have terrible effects on seniors," Lichtenstein said. "There are several cans said. The options: remaining in traditional fee-for-service medicine, switching to HMOs and other networks of doctors and hospitals, and establish- ing medical savings accounts that would combine insurance covering cata- strophic health care costs with a tax- sheltered savings account that could be used to meet medical expenses. The HMOs would be attractive if they offered benefits, such as prescrip- tion drugs, preventive care, eyeglasses and hearing aids, that Medicare doesn't cover. Currently, 9 percent of all Medi- care enrollees are in HMOs; GOP plan- ners hope the figure will rise to 40 percent or more. President Clinton and congressional Democrats had charged that Republi- cans would force the elderly into HMOs by making it costly to stay in the current Medicare system. To defuse this charge, the Republi- can plan promised to leave unchanged the current deductible, with beneficia- ries paying the first $100 in doctor bills each year, and the co-payment, which calls for patients to pay 20 percent of authorized charges. Instead, the GOP target for financial stress became health care providers, with the government assuming a sub- pressing problems. The Republicans, have to cut $270 billion from now to 2002 to balance the budget and give a, large tax cut to the wealthy." The program also will include a discussion led by Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor) and a written state- ment from Sen. Spencer Abraham (R- Mich.) AACC member and retired Univer- sity Prof. Daniel Fusfeld organized today's conference. "We scheduled it so that people will get some informa- tion in timeto write to their represen- tatives," he said.< Although Fusfeld said he will en- courage people to lobby their law- makers, it is not the focus of the forum. "Mostly, it's an information and ques- tion-and-answer program." stantial regulatory role over the costs of hospitals, physicians, home health care and medical laboratories. The Republi- cans call this system a "fail-safe" in case the expected savings from man- aged care did not materialize. The GOPpacket saidthebill, calledthe Medicare Preservation Act of 1995, would "preserve the system for current benefi- ciaries, protect it for future beneficiaries, and strengthen it through reforms that have worked in the private sector." Democrats saw it differently. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the Republican approach was "illogical and unfair" and would in effect "move Medicare off the federal budget onto the family budget." President Clinton said it was "mor- ally questionable ... to propose vast Medicare cuts" and raise Medicare pre- miums on the elderly to pay for tax cuts. Clinton's own Medicare proposals would let the monthly fee for insurance covering doctors' bills to rise to about $83 in 2002, about $7 less than the new Republican proposal. Clinton and other Democrats say only $100 billion in savings are needed to assure several additional years of solvency for the Medicare hospital trust fund, which is headed for bankruptcy in 2002. AP PHOTO FBI sharpshooters are sworn in yesterday prior to testifying before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee during hearings on a 1992 raid of Randy Weaver's cabin. ier t saet Ruby Rde sig GOP tax bill would hit poor, businesses Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - Taking another politically perilous step in their march toward a balanced budget, House Re- publicans have decided to push for pas- sage of significant tax increases that would hit both moneyed business inter- ests and low-income working families. The tax hike bill, drafted by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) would raise some $30 billion over seven years by eliminating tax breaks for an array of corporate interests - including the movie indus- try, pharmaceutical manufacturers and insurance companies. In addition, it would generate $20 billion over the same period by impos- ing new restrictions on the Earned In- come Tax Credit, which was designed to pull working families out of poverty. The proposed increases, ifapproved, would be linked to a $245 billion-pack- age of tax reductions that are consid- ered the centerpiece of GOP tax policy. Those, in turn, would become part of a far-reaching package of deficit-reduc- tion measures expected to move through Congress this fall. Likely cries of protest from movie moguls, insurance agents and others who stand to lose substantial tax ad- vantages under Archer's legislation could add to the difficulty of passing the GOP budget package, which al- ready contains politically explosive proposals to curb the growth of Medi- care, cut farm subsidies and slash spending across a broad range of fed- eral programs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-basedresearch group, noted that the $30 billion reduc- tion in business tax subsidies would pale in comparison to the business tax breaks that would remain on the books and the new ones that Republicans have included in their $245 billion tax relief package. Indeed, some of the proceeds from cutting business tax breaks, derided by some critics as "corporate welfare," would go back to other businesses. The Archer bill would extend several tax breaks that are about to expire, includ- ing one for research and development expenditures that is important to many businesses. Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON-FBI snipers yes- terday defended their actions at the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege where a white separatist's wife was killed, contend- ing that danger to an FBI observation helicopter from armed men outside the separatist's cabinjustified opening fire. But skeptical senators questioned whether permissive shoot-to-kill orders and exaggerated information about the threat of Randy Weaver led to an over- reaction. Dale R. Monroe, the partner of FBI hostage rescue team leader Lon Horiuchi - who fired the fatal shot - said he was preparing to fire but didn't only because Horiuchi fired first. Horiuchi invoked his Fifth Amend- ment protection against self-incrimina- tion Tuesday after the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism refused to give him limited immunity from pros- ecution. "We don't have Mr. Horiuchi here," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), subcom- mittee chairman, pointed out to under- score the importance of the snipers' testimony. "You are as close as we have." The Senate panel is trying to deter- mine what took place at Ruby Ridge on Aug. 21-22, 1992, when deputy U.S. marshals seeking to arrest Weaver for failing to appear on illegal gun sale charges led to a confrontation in which deputy marshal William E. Degan and Weaver's 14-year-old son, Sammy, were killed. The FBI's hostage rescue team then was called in, and Weaver's wife, Vicki, standing behind a cabin door, was killed by a shot that Horiuchi has testified previously that he fired at one of the men running to the cabin. To some government critics, Ruby Ridge has become a symbol of law enforcement excesses. But Monroe seemed to speak for his colleagues when he opened his testi- mony challenging the label of "trained killers" given to the team last week by Randy Weaver's lawyer Gerry Spence. "We are trained to save lives," Monroe said, noting that Congress commended the unit for its rescue of hostages with- out firing a shot at the 1991 Talladega, Ala., federal prison riot. "The trained killer accusation is un- fair to all dedicated agents and to the widow of U.S. Marshal William Degan," Monroe said. Write letters to the Daily at daily~letters@umich.edu 'I U Save e ca 180 le ou no a Sa. pS Power Macintosh' 720075 wICD 8MB RAM/500MB hard drive, Power PC 601 processor; quad speed CD-ROM drive, 15"color monitor; keyboard and mouse. 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