6A
Friday, September 22,1995
NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Medicare plan revealed, fierce fight expected
Democrats question whether Republican design will deliver
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Republicans unveiled a politically charged proposal yesterday to overhaul Medicare, blending strict cost controls on the system with incentives for senior citizens to move toward cheaper alternatives.
"Our mission is to preserve Medicare, to protect Medicare and to strengthen Medicare," House Speaker Newt Gingrich said at a
news conference called to unveil a plan to curtail costs by $270 billion over seven years.
Democrats instantly rebutted, saying Republicans were simply diverting money that now goes for Medicare into whopping tax cuts for the rich. "We may lose, but we're going to go down fighting," vowed House Democratic Leader Richard Genhard.
Despite releasing a 59-page summary of the plan, Republicans offered no accounting for achieving the savings they hope to gain, either from the premium increases or the restrictions on doctors and hospitals.
The GOP-controlled House and Senate are expected to vote in the next few weeks on similar proposals.
Under the GOP plan outlined by Gingrich, premiums would rise faster than now — and would triple for those whose income exceeded $100,000.
At the same time, Republicans outlined a series of alternatives to the coverage — a system that Gingrich said had failed to keep pace with dramatic changes in the private insurance market.
The alternatives include HMOs and other managed-care programs, with the possibility of rebates for seniors who choose them.
Another option is a so-called medical savings account, in which a senior would choose a lower-premium policy that offers a
deductible of up to $10.000.
Gingrich and other Republicans said they were waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to estimate what the bill would save. Officials have said previously that CBO's estimated savings was billions of dollars below the leadership's more optimistic projections — meaning the difference would have to be made up elsewhere.
Gingrion said he expected to save $70 billion by encouraging seniors to switch to private health plans and medical savings accounts from traditional Medicare.
Republicans intend to hold a hearing today and move swiftly to vote on the bill in the House Ways and Means Committee. Democrats criticized that, too, saying several
weeks of hearings were required to air the proposal, and vowing to take testimony on the lawn outside the Capitol if the Republicans wouldn't do it inside.
Gephardt promised perhaps the most controversial fight ever in Congress.
The GOP Medicare effort shaped up as the most politically risky element of the plan to balance the budget by 2002. Democrats distributed a videotape featuring well-known actors warning seniors that Republicans were cutting Medicare. Their goal was to trigger a rebellion among seniors and wipe out the GOP congressional majorities at the next election.
Among the details, Republicans would:
Raise the $46.10 monthly premium for Medicare Part B coverage to between $90 and $93 by 2002. Under today's law, that premium would climb to $60 by 2002, and under a White House plan it would increase to nearly $83.
Allow private insurance companies to charge deductibles as high as $10,000 to seniors who elect to switch to catastrophic-only Medicare coverage combined with a medical savings account.
Revive Republican proposals to limit medical malpractice lawsuit awards to a maximum of $250,000 for punitive damages and $250,000 for pain and suffering. Patients still could collect unlimited amounts equal to their actual medical bills and loss of income.
House passes bill to end speed limit
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — One could almost hear the growl of auto engines revving up.
The House joined the Senate Wednesday in voting to let states end the 55 mph speed limit that has chafed American drivers for more than two decades.
The National Highway System Bill, designating 159,000 miles of priority roads and freeing $5.2 billion in federal road funds for 1996 and $6.5 billion for 1997, passed the House 419-7.
Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, D-WVa., sought to amend the bill to keep the national speed limit of 55 mph on most roads and 65 mph on rural interstates. He said that lifting the limit would lead to carnage on the highways.
Though the national speed limit was introduced in 1974 as an energy-saving measure, highway deaths declined.
"It should be obvious that the death toll will rise once the states begin increasing the speed limits under the provisions of the bill ... This is not a matter of states' rights, it's a matter of human rights," Rahall said.
Transportation secretary Federico Pena and other safety advocates have opposed easing the limits.
Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., said that speed limits appropriated for one state may be too slow for another, and motorists would ignore limits that were too slow.
States are best suited to determine the limit for their own roads, and state legislators also are concerned about the safety of their residents, he said.
Opposition to the limits has been especially strong in the large Western states, where cities can be far apart and roads are often straight and flat.
The House voted 313-112 to drop the speed limits. The Senate-passed version of the bill also drops the speed limit for cars but keeps it for large trucks and buses. The differences will have to be worked out in a conference committee.
The National Highway System Bill would also:
Exempt farmers from limits on how long commercial drivers can work during harvest season.
Restore about $1 billion in 1996 highway funding to states that would have been blocked because of excessive spending in past years.
Require states to set strict limits on underage drinkers who drive.
Many states use the same driving-while-intoxicated standard for adults and teenagers even though the minimum drinking age is 21. The new law would call for a teen limit just one-fourth of the alcohol allowed for adults.
While alcohol affects people differently, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has characterized the new standard as telling teenagers not to allow even one drink to pass their lips.
Second degree burns O.J.'s defense
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Jurors may convict O.J. Simpson on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, the judge ruled yesterday, dealing the defense a setback in its all-or-nothing verdict strategy.
Judge Lance ita said the evidence could reasonably show that Ronald Goldman's murder was not premeditated because Goldman wasn't expected at Nicole Brown Simpson's house the night of June 12, 1994.
Technically, the jury can return a second-degree murder verdict in both killings. But prosecutor Brian Kelberg suggested that jurors be told that the evidence supported the lesser charge only in Goldman's killing.
The instruction means the jury won't need as much evidence to convict Simpson of murder. Premeditation is required in a first-degree murder conviction. To convict him of second-degree murder, jurors won't have to find that Simpson carefully weighed his actions before committing a murder.
A first-degree murder conviction carries a prison sentence of 25 years to life. For second-degree murder, it's 15 years to life. If Simpson is convicted of multiple murder — a
special circumstance — he would face life without parole. Before the trial, prosecutors decided against the death penalty for the special circumstance.
Ito also rejected a defense request that jurors be told they could ignore all of retired detective Mark Fuhrman's testimony.
To refused to tell the jury that if a witness lied in one important part of his testimony, then all of his testimony may be rejected. It also rejected an accompanying defense proposal that would have allowed jurors to ignore all of Fuhrman's testimony if they found he lied about his racial views.
Even though Ito won't give jurors guidance on the issue, they still have the right to reject Fuhrman's testimony. The instruction merely would have highlighted the issue and given jurors further legal justification for ignoring his testimony.
In another blow to the defense today, the California Supreme Court unanimously denied Simpson's appeal that jurors be told more about why Fuhrman wasn't called back to testify after they heard a tape of him uttering a racial slur in contradiction to his testimony.
Ito plans to instruct the jury today.
Prosecutes pressed for the right to instruct jurors that they could return a second-degree murder verdict.
But the defense strongly argued that the jury should be given only the choice of first-degree murder or acquittal because an instruction of second-degree murder could suggest Simpson wasn't strongly denying his guilt.
"The position of the defendant is that, yes, these are premeditated murders — that the defendant did not commit," defense attorney Gerald Uelman told the judge. "By giving that instruction, you are contradicting and undercutting the defense presented by the defendant in this case."
Uelmen said there was no evidence of second-degree murder presented at trial.
"It just as plausible ... to suggest that Nicole Brown Simpson was in the wrong place at the wrong time when somebody came, to murder Ron Goldman," Uelman said.
But Ito said the evidence showed that Goldman had other plans for that night and only went to Nicole Brown Simpson's condominium to return glasses that her mother had left at the restaurant where Goldman worked.
Before yesterday's hearing, Ito said both sides should rest their cases today.
Hit me with another filet mignon, cookie
The Associated Press
A study by the Institute of Medicine found that although the Army gives soldiers enough food, the soldiers often don't eat enough to meet the energy requirements of field conditions. Sometimes the soldiers lose dramatic amounts of weight.
WASHINGTON — Nobody expects Army food to be gourmet food, but the military should spice things up to keep soldiers from losing too much weight on the battlefield, scientists said yesterday.
The weight loss could impair battle performance, said Colorado
State University nutrition expert Richard Jansen, a member of the institute panel. He said the Army was trying to prevent the situation from becoming a big problem.
The Army funded the study to figure out how to improve food consumption during combat and field training. Harsh field conditions, such as bad weather, fatigue and stress, can depress soldiers' appetites.
A repeated diet of MREs — Meals Ready-to-Eat — also can decrease soldiers' appetites, according to the study. MREs are prepackaged rations designed to feed troops for
a few days until field kitchens are set up. Some MREs have chemical systems that heat up the food, but many don't and the study found some troops in the Persian Gulf War lived on MREs alone for 60 days.
The institute recommended that the Army supply hot meals more quickly, develop a food policy that dictates how commanders fight excessive weight loss in the field and improve the packaging and variety of field rations. Even giving soldiers high-nutrient snacks to carry in their pockets would help, the scientists said.
Next year the Army plans to send a
small, mobile kitchen and two cooks with combat troops to provide hot meals to front-line soldiers immediately.
Soldiers who lose 10 percent of their body weight over four weeks show physical or mental impairment, the institute said. However, even a 5 percent loss in less than 48 hours — usually due to dehydration — can be dangerous.
A 160-pound soldier who lost 16 pounds in four weeks would be eating 2,000 too few calories daily.
Kansan Classifieds get results. Fast!
The institute also recommended that the Army provide a variety of food.
WHEAT MEET 1995 AKL
September 24,1995
9:00-4:00
Benefits KU Cancer Research
Over $9,000 was raised last year sign up at Wescoe Beach this week. Events include a Simon Say contest in which the winner gets a free weekend trip to Chicago, sponsored by Travel Center.
Kick Off Party Friday September 22 at the Granada Blueshead Beggars w/ Acoustic Juice Tickets:$5 advance or $8 at the door
The Etc. Shop 928 Mass.Downtown
Co-sponsored by All That Jazz Produced by special arrangement with Anchorage Press, Inc. Directed by Steven Grossman
7:00 p.m. Saturday, September 23, 1995 Crafton-Preyer Theatre/Murphy Hall
General admission tickets are on sale in the KU box offices: Murphy Hall, 846-3982; Lied Center, 864-ARTS, SUA Office, 864-3477; public $6, K-12 and KU students $3, senior citizens $5; both VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone orders.
The University Theatre productions are partially funded by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee.