SEN. ASHCROFT VISITS WITH CAPE GIRARDEAU SENIORS

U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft listened to the health care concerns of a group of senior citizens and health care providers at Southeast Missouri Hospital Friday afternoon.

The group's concerns involved issues such as Medicare payments, the price of prescription medicine, hospitals' inability to operate in the black and government bureaucracy in health care.

Ashcroft said he wants to assure Missouri seniors that money they pay into Social Security and Medicare will be available to them after years of paying into the system.

He developed a system called the "lockbox plan" that protects Social Security and Medicare surpluses from being diverted to other activities.

"Missourians deserve to have full confidence that they will receive Social Security and Medicare benefits when the time comes," he said.

"That confidence is eroded when Washington prefers to spend the Social Security and Medicare surplus rather than save it, which has been the case for far too long."

He also talked about the government's role in health care policy changes.

"So much of what happens in the hospitals regarding funding has to do with the federal government," Ashcroft said. "We've got to be careful in developing so many regulations that people spend more time with paperwork than with patients."

Ashcroft also said he wants to see hospitals able to provide good service and still operate with a balanced budget.

"More than half of all hospitals operate in a negative balance. We can't keep asking them to do that," he said. "We don't want to cut costs when it's going to result in a cut in service."