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The following article may be useful to advocates as we develop our material for our discussions with senators and congressman. Looks like Senators Connie Mack (R) and Ted Kennedy (D) understand where we are coming from with the economic case ie. spend research dollars now and save megadollars later. Of course there is a case base on compassion too , but in todays time compassion with economic benefits seems to be the winning combination. Houston Chronicle Tuesday, March 18, 1997 Less elderly disability seen as Medicare fix BY SPENCER RICH Washington Post WASHINGTON - Medical innovations and lifestyle changes have reduced the percentage of elderly Americans who have chronic disabilities by 15 percent over the past decade, according to a medical study to be published today. The study, conducted by Duke University and funded by the government's National Institute on Aging, is being hailed by a panel of academic experts to show that such improvements could cut hundreds of billions of dollars from future Medicare costs and help solve the program's financial problems with-out deep benefit slashes or huge tax increases Care for the disabled costs up to six times more than care for healthy individual. So, as a result of the lower rates of chronic disabled, according to Duke's study, Medicare costs in 1995 were about $25 billion to $33 billion lower than they otherwise would have been. Medicare, a $200 billion-a-year federal health program for 38 million aged and disabled Americans, is growing much faster than the economy. Medicares hospital trust fund faces bankruptcy in 2001. Even if that can be temporarily averted, program costs will balloon when the big baby boom population reaches retirement early in the next century, doubling the rolls. Large benefits cuts or payroll tax increases would then be needed to save the program. The one viable solution to Medicare's financial problems could come by increasing research funding to improve the health of the elderly. Senator Edward Kennedy D-Mass., used the study Monday to argue that on viable solution to Medicare's financial problems could come by increasing research funding to improve the health of the elderly. "If we take the sensible steps needed to fix Medicare for the short term ," he said, "the most effective. way to keep It solvent for the long term is to maintain and modestly increase the existing trend toward better health for older Americans." Kennedy proposed a doubling of the current level of federal support for medical research over the next five years to $26 billion, arguing that right now "only one quarter of the worthwhile research projects submitted for support by the National Institutes of Health can be funded ." Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., has introduced a sense of the Senate resolution proposing a doubling of NIH funding over five years, but how far it will get is uncertain Kennedy argued Monday that Medicare savings would almost certainly result from smart spending now on promising ways to thwart the disabling impact of Alzheimer's disease , PARKINSON'S DISEASE, Osteoporosis and diabetes, research into estrogen therapy for women and campaigns to get people to improve eating habits and lifestyles. One strategy, for example, is based on research now under way seeking to retard the onset and progression of Alzheimer's, making it much less costly to care for victims of the disease in its earliest stages. The Duke study found large savings could also be realized by reducing the number of elderly who need to be put in nursing homes, where the typical 1994 cost was $43,300 a person. -- [log in to unmask]