ANAHEIM : 6,000 Hear Koop Rx on Health Care

Managed competition. Fee for service. Single-payer.

The mind-boggling jargon being bandied about in the national health care debate is pretty much Greek to 75-year-old Evelyn Navelski.

Hoping to get a better understanding of the issues, Navelski and 6,000 other, mostly older people turned out for a speech by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop at the American Assn. of Retired Persons convention Wednesday.

Koop was among a number of panelists to address health care reform during the second day of the convention. But after the speech, Navelski, a resident of South Laguna Beach, said she felt no more enlightened.

“It’s all so complicated,” she said. “You worry about whether under the new plan you’ll be able to keep your same doctor.”

Speaking before a packed house, Koop blasted the “tyranny” of the current health care system and urged Americans to demand that their elected leaders put health concerns above politics in the debate over reform.

“We should demand no less from our Congress, no less from our President. We need to stretch our vision of health care reform to match our vision of a healthy society,” Koop said, eliciting thunderous applause from the crowd of people, the vast majority of whom were over 50.

Koop limited his comments for the most part to the Clinton plan, one of six health care proposals under serious consideration by Congress. However, he said, older people would fare well under any of the proposals.

“I think of all the groups of people, you have the best deal,” Koop said.

Health care reform was a major theme of a day that also included an appearance by Fernando Gil-Torres, an assistant secretary for aging with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Many at the convention said they are satisfied with their insurance benefits and don’t want anyone tinkering with them.

“What we have is working. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Estella Hill, a 72-year-old retiree from Pittsburgh, Pa., who recently underwent cataract surgery that was entirely covered by her insurance.

“I don’t want to deny insurance to those who don’t have it, but for those of us who do, they should leave it alone,” she said. “I don’t buy any of this pie in the sky.”

James Smith, 80, a retired businessman from Los Angeles, says he too is skeptical of reform plans.

“I don’t want them fooling around and I get stuck having to pay for my heart pills,” said Smith, whose policy pays for his costly medication.

The AARP leadership strongly supports the theory of health care reform but has not endorsed any of the competing proposals offered by federal lawmakers. However, the influential lobbying organization for senior citizens has gone on record as saying the Clinton plan is the most attractive because it would add prescription benefits and long-term care to Medicare coverage.