House Passes `Catastrophic' Illness Plan; Bill Seeks to Protect Medicare Recipients
The supplemental premium imposed by the Medicare catastrophic insurance bill passed by the House July 22 is expected to average $381 in 1988 and proximately $666 in 1992 for the 40 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who will actually have to pay the supplemental premium. Lower figures were cited in a July 23 story on House passage of the bill. (Published 8/1/87)</br></br>The House defied a veto threat yesterday and overwhelmingly approved a landmark bill to protect the nation's 31 million elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries against "catastrophic" hospital and doctor bills.</br></br>"It shows we can overrride a veto in the House," said Rep. Fortney H. (Pete) Stark (D-Calif.), chief sponsor of the bill, which passed 302 to 127.</br></br>The bill does not provide long-term nursing-home benefits. But it "removes egregious gaps" in Medicare coverage, said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the other key sponsor.</br></br>The new benefits-which would cost $34 billion over the next five years-would be financed by raising the Medicare premium-now $17.90 a month but scheduled to rise in steps under existing law to about $26 by 1992-by another $2.60 a month in 1989. The premium increase would rise to $5.50 by 1992.