November 2, 1971
Page 38756
THE ELDERLY IN AMERICA'S DESTINY
Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, as chairman of the Health Care Subcommittee of the Special Committee on Aging, the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE) has been deeply involved with the problems of the elderly. His subcommittee has held hearings across the country on the many problems involved with delivering adequate health care to older Americans. Out of those hearings, Senator MUSKIE has developed a keen understanding of the changes that must be made in our health care delivery system in order to meet the health care needs of all senior citizens. Senator MUSKIE has discussed these changes in a speech he delivered this past September in Florida. I ask unanimous consent that the speech, entitled "The Elderly in America's Destiny," be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
THE ELDERLY IN AMERICA'S DESTINY
I always look forward to leaving the semantic confusion of Washington and coming back to the real America. In the Senate, we tend to see our nation on paper alone and we sometimes forget that behind each volume of analysis and statistics, there are human beings facing very tough human problems.
And so, whenever I can, I try to meet the people who live the lives I see before me on paper each day.
And the real lives of the elderly . . . the retired worker . . and the pensioner can never be described by statistics or analysis.
No statistic can ever convey the feeling of living in a country where age too often builds barriers and imposes loneliness.
And no academic analysis can capture the despair which older Americans feel when their country turns its back on half a century of productive service and contribution.
How can others forget so soon all that you have done for us?
How can the rest of us forget the bond of our common humanity – that, with good fortune, we will all grow old?
I do not understand the psychology of those who so fear the onset of age that they fail to see the knowledge and the wisdom that comes with passing years.
But I think I understand the politics of that psychology – and its impact on the health and prosperity of America's elderly.
Every year, our country spends a gigantic sum of money to meet pressing social needs. Because there is never enough money to go around, hard political decisions must be made – choices which inevitably shortchange some areas of vital concern.
And for too long the politics of choice have short-changed our senior citizens, sacrificing their needs to the needs of others.
Some of our government spending is required each year by law – and so the government has no choice.
Some of our spending is demanded by large, wealthy, powerful lobbies – and the government makes no choice.
And some of our spending is called for by influential bureaucracies within the government itself – and there is only one choice to make.
But there are few lobbies powerful enough, few bureaucracies influential enough, and few laws comprehensive enough to shield the elderly from the politics of choice.
So when inflation robs dollars of their purchasing power, you ... and too many others who lack political power ... you pay the price.
And when we fight a hundred-billion-dollar war in Southeast Asia, which leaves us with less to spend at home, you pay the price.
For years, inflation has stolen the value of your money, and with it your chances for a decent standard of life. You know what inflation does to fixed incomes. Statistics tell me – but no one has to tell you. While workers can fight for pay increases, those who have given so much to America cannot even fight to stay where they are.
There is much we must do about inflation now.
We can adopt strong policies to bring wages and prices down – which should have been done in 1969.
And we must create a tough, fair-minded, anti-inflation program after the 90-day freeze has ended.
This would help the elderly, because it would help all the victims of inflation. And we must win this victory for price stability in 1971.
But what will happen when we experience the next inflation?
What will happen to you when the next inflation forces America to play again the politics of choice?
The plain fact is that unless we protect the elderly now ... you will pay for the next inflation, as you have paid before.
We can, of course, increase social security benefits, so that the incomes of older Americans can catch up with higher prices in the economy. The presently proposed 5% increase is not enough. We must do more immediately.
But benefit increases alone are no safeguard for the future. They merely make an apologetic attempt to remedy the neglect of the past.
The federal government seldom acts preventively. The usual rule in the game of choice is to ignore the problem until it can be seen and felt. And so yesterday's challenge becomes today's crisis – and is dealt with only after great harm has been done. When Washington finally raises social security payments, the action is always too late, and often too little.
Relief comes only after suffering – only after you and millions like you have felt the full, crippling force of skyrocketing prices.
We have promised you something better than this losing hand in the game of choice – and the promise must now be kept.
I believe that the federal government should enact legislation to insure that your social security benefits will increase automatically as the cost of living goes up. Only in this way can we stop inflation from eroding your income before prices rise again. Only then, can you finally secure what America pledged over three decades ago – a truly decent life for older Americans.
And we must do more.
We must liberalize the social security retirement test. Too often, those who deserve assistance are denied benefits because of legal technicalities.
We must provide full payments for needy widows and widowers at the age of 65 – to guarantee that the emotional emptiness left by the loss of a loved one will not be matched by material deprivation.
And we must increase benefits for those who delay their retirement beyond the age of 65. We should welcome and encourage the continued exercise of your talents and energies.
But even an expanded and progressive social security system is far from enough. It can preserve the income of the elderly . . . but it cannot protect their health.
For that – we must look hard at the medical system in this nation.
And we must look again at the politics of choice – at the sad truth that government lets your resources fall behind while your health care costs continue to climb ... at a faster rate than any other price in the national economy.
The cost you pay to cover doctor bills under Medicare has doubled since the program started.
And Congres is now considering hospital fee increases that may push those prices even higher.
If the trend continues, senior citizens will soon be paying as much of their strained resources for medical care as they did when a health care program for the elderly was only a distant dream.
These are the statistics and projections I see on my desk in Washington. They are disturbing and discouraging. They are numbers, and the numbers add up to a crisis.
But numbers cannot convey the true meaning of that crisis.
They do not show the pain of arthritis. They do not show the tedious days of waiting for treatment.
They do not show how the elderly pay the costs of an unfair medical system with lingering illness or financial hardship.
Our older Americans have done so much for this country . . it is time for this country to do more for them.
One answer is to hold down the cost of medicare.
But that requires choices – and we have seen what the odds are in the game of choice.
If we happen to be fighting a war in Southeast Asia – or if a lobby or a bureaucracy intervenes – then the elderly are left to a time of sickness – or to medical bills which they cannot afford.
The only fair solution is a new system of national health insurance, built upon a foundation of national planning and intelligent reorganization.
We must guarantee complete and comprehensive medical care for all Americans.
We must, once and for all, take the dollar sign out of your medical decisions.
And we must devise new and creative systems for the delivery of health care ... to put medical services where the people and the problems are.
That is why I proposed legislation – which the Senate has already adopted – to build new medical schools and train doctors for the special treatment required by senior citizens. And I have also proposed–
The construction of special clinics in areas heavily populated by the elderly
The development of health care teams to bring aid to those shut in at home
And the provision of new transportation facilities to take the elderly to and from distant hospitals and clinics.
The first duty of our government is to protect America's vital resources. And there is no resource more important or more essential than what you have to offer the rest of us.
I favor automatic social security benefit increases and comprehensive health insurance .
Not because we owe you something – although we do ...
Not because we should feel an obligation to those who gave so much to their country – although we should ...
But because these reforms are a valuable investment in our nation's future.
We have much to learn from our senior citizens ... things we cannot learn from anyone else.
You have seen so much, and you have learned so much.
You must shake your heads when you hear the alarmed cries that America is inevitably going under – for you have shared with this land far darker hours.
You have seen a nation of soup-kitchens and breadlines, staggered by the economic collapse we call the Great Depression. You have helped that nation rebuild itself into the richest society in the history of man.
You have seen an America stunned at Pearl Harbor get up off the mat and preserve the chance for freedom in the world.
You can tell this country – with an authority born of pain and hunger, of growth and laughter, of knowledge and wisdom – you can tell us all how good and how great America can be.
And we need you, and your wisdom, to help take us there ... just as Winston Churchill, at the age of 76, took Britain to its finest hour.
Each of you, in your own perhaps more personal way, can work now for a finer hour in this country.
You proved to us, in other times, that it can be done.
Now, when we need you, as we have before, you can prove to us that old is beautiful. You can prove to us – to a nation which more than ever needs to listen – that the words of Robert Kennedy ring true:
"Youth is not a time of life, but a state of mind."