Activists Protest Health Care Cuts : Legislation: Doctors and advocates for the elderly urge Moorhead to oppose GOP plans to slash Medicare and Medicaid.

Outraged by Republican proposals to slash Medicare and Medicaid funding, about 40 health care advocates demonstrated Friday at the office of Rep. Carlos Moorhead (R-Glendale), urging the lawmaker to oppose moves to create a managed-care health system.

The demonstrators, who included area physicians and groups representing seniors, the mentally ill, nurses and people with AIDS, said GOP cost-cutting proposals released this week would gut the national health system and lead to delayed or denied treatment for the needy.

“Moorhead is in the perfect position to do the right thing and not just toe the Republican line,” said Dana Hohn of Glendale-based Neighbor to Neighbor, a group advocating a universal health care system. “He’s also of Medicare age, so he should understand the issue, and he’s about to retire from Congress, so it won’t cost him anything politically.”

Moorhead is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is scheduled to vote on the plan next week. Speaker Newt Gingrich has said he hopes the House will pass the Medicare plan by the end of the month. GOP leaders maintain that the Medicare program is insolvent and will go bankrupt by 2002 if drastic changes are not made to the program’s financing.

Proponents say the new plan will bring “private sector efficiency” to Medicare by giving seniors a choice among the traditional program, HMOs and medical savings accounts. In all, the plan calls for cutting Medicare spending by $270 billion and Medicaid spending by $180 billion over the next seven years, and reducing reimbursement rates to doctors, clinics and hospitals while raising some premiums.

“These cuts are going to destroy any hope for medical services to be provided in this county,” said Dr. Jonathan Weisbuch, director of medical planning and education with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and one of the demonstrators. The GOP plan would cut $12.2 billion from Los Angeles County health programs, which have already been cut severely, over the next seven years and “shut down public as well as private hospitals,” he added.

Others accused the GOP of using Medicare cuts to pay for tax breaks for the rich.

Moorhead, who was in Washington and could not be reached Friday, has said previously that he, too, is concerned about managed-care programs, wherein health maintenance organizations receive a flat monthly fee for each patient enrolled--whether or not they receive care--and doctors can receive bonuses when patients do not need hospitalization or specialized care.

The protesters met briefly with Peter Musurlian, an aide to Moorhead, who said that the congressman was still weighing the issue.

“The easiest thing is to do nothing and just keep on deficit spending,” Musurlian said later. “But the Republicans are trying to address a very serious fiscal problem. They believe we’re spending ourselves into bankruptcy.”