Shared Blame

Regarding “A Life is Lost in Tangle of Red Tape,” (Feb. 4) by Lidia E. Everett, M.D.

The tragic incident cited by Dr. Everett is not only a result of Medicare bureaucracy but of the efforts of those groups of activist senior citizens who successfully persuaded Congress to rescind the Catastrophic Health Act that was in place for one year, 1989. The Catastrophic Health Act allowed patients to be placed in a nursing home without a prior three-day stay in an acute hospital.

Granted, the funding may not have been completely equitable. Yes, those Medicare beneficiaries whose incomes are high enough to have to pay an $800 surtax were probably justified at feeling they carried an unfair burden of supporting the entire Medicare population. However, Congress threw out the baby with the bath water in rescinding that act. An $800 surtax for vastly improved coverage was a bargain at any method of accounting. Surely Congress could have kept the provisions of this catastrophic benefit in place while looking for a better funding mechanism.

The tragic scenario will be played out in thousands of families with members in hospitals across the country.

PATRICIA GREEN

San Diego