Governor Lacks Sympathy for Elderly, Bradley Says

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Bradley, seeking support from elderly voters, said Friday that the state administration of senior citizen programs is poorly organized and “scattered.”

Bradley, who spoke to about 50 senior citizens and high school students here, said that the state programs for the elderly should be combined under one agency. Currently, he said, those programs are spread among 19 governmental units. The Los Angeles mayor criticized Republican Gov. George Deukmejian for failing to implement 1982 legislation that would have consolidated the programs.

Jerry Wenker, special assistant to the director in the state Department of Aging, said that most senior citizen programs are under the department. Some services are under different departments, like the Department of Social Services, he said, “but there’s a rationale to it. How a program is run is sometimes determined by federal law. Just because you’re providing a service to someone over a certain age doesn’t mean it should all be lumped together.”

Campaign Promise

Bradley said that if elected he would mandate private insurance to supplement Medicare in order to help pay for long illnesses. Currently most seniors must buy supplemental health insurance to pay for what Medicare does not cover, and the cost of long-term illness “is a real source of concern,” Wenker said. The Department of Aging “is studying what the state and federal governments should do in this regard.”

Bradley, who in a recent Los Angeles Times Poll was shown to be gaining with voters over age 65, made a direct pitch for support to the elderly in the audience.

‘Look at His Record’

“Do not vote based upon some perception that the incumbent is somehow your friend. All you need do is look at his record to find out the truth,” he said. Deukmejian’s record, Bradley charged, does not demonstrate “the kind of compassion, the kind of sympathy, the kind of understanding seniors of this state ought to have.”

Wenker said Bradley “misses history” by failing to mention that Deukmejian supported administrative and legislative changes that established a program for community-based, long-term care for seniors that helps them stay in their own homes instead of nursing homes.