ASHCROFT AIDE BRIEFS CHAMBER PANEL ON HEALTH-CARE LEGISLATION

Pending health-care legislation in the U.S. Senate was discussed Wednesday morning during a Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Health Committee meeting.

Sen. John Ashcroft's legislative assistant, Annie Billings, told about a dozen people at the meeting that legislation leaving a senate subcommittee would provide health-care reform in the areas of health insurance and Medicare and Medicaid.

"A lot of this is still being crafted," Billings said. "We probably won't see anything this fall, but by next spring, something should make it to the floor. Sen. (Bob) Dole wants to see so much on the floor by this fall that it will be sometime next year."

Billings said current health insurance reform proposals would limit exclusions on pre-existing conditions and other mandates that might be superimposed by state law.

But she said senators are exerting more effort toward reforming the Medicare and Medicaid programs at the federal level, not at private health insurance reform.

Medicare has 37 million enrollees, with Missourians making up more than 834,000 of that number. In recent years, Billings said the program has grown about 10.4 percent annually. She said the current proposal would limit growth to 6.4 percent.

"Medicare takes $181 billion annually with $160 billion being federal dollars," she said. "The rest is from premiums that are paid in."

The fund supporting Medicare would go broke by 1997 at the current rate of withdrawals versus deposits, she said, adding: "People see this as an entitlement, so something will have to be done."

The growth of Medicaid also demands special attention, she said. Proposals leaving committee would limit growth to 5 percent and provide for more block grants for states to administer.

"We think the states and local governments can do a better job overseeing the funds than the people up in Washington," she said.

Members of the committee that participated in a question, answer and input session following Billings' presentation shared one question: When is reform coming?

"We've been hearing this for years, and we all know the problems," said one woman in the health-care business. "So when is something going to be done."

Billings said, "Now is the time to call your congressmen and senators and tell them something needs to be done. And not just work on the outer fringes of the programs but on reforming them."