Pension Scheme For U.S. Aged Almost Certain

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29221, 3 June 1960, Page 11

Pension Scheme For U.S. Aged Almost Certain

ISpecta'ly written for the N.Z.P.A Oy FRANK OLIVERI WASHINGTON, May 27. No question before this Congress has produced so much lobbying as the question of America’s aged and ageing people.

Such has been the pressure of public opinion on both Congress and *he Administration that a bill of some kind to provide medi<ll and hospital insurance for persons over 65 is now a virtual certainty before Congress rises at the end of June or early in July. Two bills were introduced early in the session, the Forand Bill in the House and the Kennedy Bill in the Senate. Both are Democratic Party bills. In March the President let it be known that he was against these bills because they represented "socialised medicine. ”

The Secretary of Health then suggested that he be permitted to introduce a substitute bill to deal with this important and pressing problem and the President said he was opposed to that too. (Among those strongly behind the Secretary for Health was Vice-President Nixon). But that did not end the matter The pressure of public opinion finally persuaded the Administration that it must do something about the matter and the President finally allowed an Admini-

stration measure to be sent to Congress One writer says the problems of the aged and how they should be handled may well form a crucial issue in the coming elections.

There are today 16.000.000 persons in America 65 years and over and, say som’ .authorities, the number may be as high as 28 million by 1970. The vast majority of these people are idle, though often not of their own volition. In the postwar years it has been very difficult for persons over 55 to find new employment should their jobs fail or should they move to another part of the country The early sixties have come to be looked upon as the general retirement age.

It is reported reliably that some 8.000,000 persons over 65 live on less than 50 dollars a week for four people and that on this income they cannot afford proper housing, proper nutrition or adequate medical care. Of the 16,000.000 elderly, nearly 60 per cent, have an income of less than 1000 dollars a year. One writer in the “New York Times” says:

"If they are not a charge on the richest State ever devised by man they are at least a charge on the national conscience.”

The Senate has a Sub-Commit-tee on the problems of the Aged and it says that it is not only those over 65 who present a problem. There are, says the committee. many people in their early 60's who still have parents living who are in their 80’s and whose medical care represents a serious drain on the resources of their 60-year-old “children.” Now that bills from both parties are before Congress the differences between Democratic and Republican thinking on the matter have been pinpointed. The Democratic bills would nave a measure of compulsion about them because under them everyone who pays social security taxes (employers and employees) would have to pay slightly higher taxes, this increase being used to insure the elderly end current taxpayers when they reach 65. The Social Security machinery would be used to administer the whole scheme.

The Administration bill would give the aged the choice of coming in or staying out of the scheme, which would be administered by the various States, the Federal Government sharing the cost. Not all Republicans are behind the Administration proposals, a notable dissenter being Governor Rockefeller, of New York, who thinks the scheme would be hard to work and who favours the

Social Security Administration handling the whole thing. There is much lobbying against the measures of both parties, in particular by the American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and the American Farm Bureau Federation. The A M A. calls it, like the President, “socialised medicine.”

The Washington “Post” objects to this “bogus label” being put on a scheme whereby Americans can provide for health hazards of their retirement years by paying insurance premiums through taxation during their wage-earning years "It is a practical scheme for enabling citizens to face old age with confidence and selfrespect.” says the "Post.” which also says it is dismaying to find the President “narcotised" by the cry of socialised medicine.

However, lobbying by and for the aged seems to be prevailing. After all, those over 65 represent 15 per cent, of the total electorate and as they are not tied down by working hours and other responsibilities of the younger voters they bulk large in the 60 per cent, of the electorate which usually goes to the polls in a Presidential election year.

A lot of lobbying and pressure from these people has persuaded Democratic leaders in Congress to withdraw their original opposition to the Forand Bill and get behind a compromise measure. This seems to ensure the passage of some measure to provide medical aid for the aged.