Second Opinion / OTHER MEDIA : SENIOR LIFE : Survey Shows Seniors Divided on Health Care

The American Assn. of Retired People with a claimed 30-million plus membership, is the largest of dozens of senior organizations in Washington. Just about all of them have taken public stands on health care.

All of them claim to speak for seniors and, to a certain extent, they do. Yet, their public statements on the Clinton plan range from outright opposition to outright support. This widespread disparity is reflected in our own reader survey.

With more than 200 readers responding, only 36% said they did not believe the Clinton plan as it stands now would control medical costs; only 52% said they thought it would provide access to health care to everyone; only 42% said it would enable them to choose their own physician, and--most interestingly--our readers were exactly equally divided in support and opposition to the plan.

The short of it is that seniors are the largest interest group in the country, but there is nothing to unite us but our age. Gradually, all of us will leave the work force if we haven’t already, and so we will have few new sources of income with which to pay for medical care, not to mention just to live out our lives. So the debate on health care is particularly critical.

As the world’s richest, most powerful, most innovative society, we likely will make more changes faster, and more mistakes, than others. Not just in health care, but in the areas of money management, housing, ethics, the legal system, leisure time and all the other essentials of living.

If you haven’t already done so, we urge you to become informed on the issues, let your elected officials know where you stand as individuals, find the senior organization that most closely represents your views and become active in it. Our elected officials know that seniors vote in higher percentages than other age groups.