THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030435
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Delegates to the fourth White House Conference on Aging have a message for Congress and the president: Don't touch Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly.
The message was made clear Tuesday night during the conference's opening session, a three-hour ``Speak Out'' that gave 50 of the 2,200 delegates three minutes each of unscripted time in which to speak their minds.
``I don't recall any talk about Medicare in the last election,'' said Helen Boosalis of Nebraska. ``There was no mandate from the public to cut Medicare.''
The conference occurs just as Congress has reconvened, promising to find ways to balance the budget. And it comes on the heels of a report by Medicare trustees that said the $175 billion program, at its current rate of spending, would be bankrupt within seven years.
``I'm tired of now being branded a criminal because I've lived longer than I'm supposed to,'' said delegate Ramona Shedroff of Florida. ``Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are programs under attack, but we are the targets and the ones who will suffer.''
Belle Likover of Ohio proposed a simple resolution urging the administration and Congress to:
Safeguard Social Security.
Protect Medicare.
Reauthorize the Older Americans Act.
Continue senior housing programs.
Maintain Supplemental Security Insurance and Medicaid as safety nets for all generations.
If Likover can gather about 200 signatures, her resolution will be voted on by all the delegates.
Her comments struck a central chord of this week's conference - ending the so-called ``generational warfare'' and encouraging cooperation between the young and the old.
Said Jennifer Craig, 21, part of the first youth delegation in the conference's history: ``Social Security, Medicare, preventive health care, are not issues for our elders; they're all of our issues. Instead of fighting for a piece of the budget pie, we need to form coalitions, strong coalitions. . .
But her argument was rebutted by another youth delegate, Gretchen Dee, 19. Dee represented Lead or Leave, a national organization of young people that espouses reform of all entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Couching her message in the form of a letter to her grandparents, she implored them ``not to freak'' at her point that the programs need to be reformed to deal with the enormous jump in the elderly population that will come as the baby boomers start retiring.
Today, the delegates will tackle their main business - voting on 40 resolutions ranging from protecting social programs to promoting the image and roles of older people.
One delegate's loudly delivered message summed up the tone of the conference's first day: ``Congress take note - these are a tough bunch of people, they will hang in for as long as it takes to protect the major programs central for all generations.'' by CNB