Week: 610.1

Guests: President Clinton, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), Ruth Kane, Richard Coorsh - Health Insurance Assn. of America, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA)

Topic: Clinton announces new age for Medicare

Reporter: Aaron Cohen

Host/Producer: Steve Girard

NEMA: A new Medicare age limit?...Health on the Hill coming up...

SPOT: The best emergency is one that doesn’t happen. The National Emergency Medicine Association. Visit us at www.nemahealth.org.

COHEN: The President wants to offer government health coverage to a niche market....50 and 60 - somethings too young for Medicare under today’s rules, but in medical limbo because of the harsh realities of the modern workplace. The catch - these near elderly would have to pay for coverage themselves...

CLINTON: It will provide access to health care for hundreds of thousands of Americans, and it is clearly the right thing to do.

COHEN: Ruth Kane of Missouri is ready to sign up now. Her husband’s health plan covered all but her heart problems, and forced the family to leave California...

KANE: People like my husband and I, who work hard to make sure we could take care of ourselves in our retirement years, shouldn’t literally have to sell the farm to have access to health care.

COHEN: Insurance industry and GOP critics say the president’s heart is in the right place, but Senator Phil Gramm reminds him that Medicare’s nearly bankrupt as it is...

GRAMM: The last thing on earth you want to be preoccupied with is getting more passengers on the Titanic.

COHEN: The White House expects around 300 thousand near-elderly to opt for the new Medicare insurance, unless Congress kills it first...for Health on the Hill, I’m Aaron Cohen.