Seniors Discuss Plans to Save Medicare System : Health care: More than 125 officials and older residents meet in Oxnard to ponder reform proposals aimed at preventing bankruptcy of the federal program.

OXNARD —  Leave Medicare alone.

That was the message many seniors planned to give their elected officials after a conference Friday in Oxnard about the future of America’s federal health insurance program.

Attending one of about 200 such conferences scheduled across the nation, participants discussed the resolutions made in May at the White House Conference on Aging in support of the needs of older Americans.

“Tell your representatives, ‘Please keep in mind strengthening the Medicare program,’ ” 82-year-old Camarillo resident Leon Kaplan, one of Ventura County’s four delegates to the Washington conference, told the crowd during a panel discussion.

It was arguably a deficit hawk’s nightmare and a health policy wonk’s dream. While politicians in Washington consider saving as much as $270 billion in Medicare over the next several years, more than 125 seniors and local health officials in the conference room at St. John’s Regional Medical Center brainstormed ways to shore up the program.

More than 37 million Americans receive Medicare, which covers those over 65 and certain disabled people. Many health experts say Medicare’s hospital trust fund will go bankrupt in 2002 if spending levels remain unchanged.

Colleen House, director of the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, said her organization’s 19-member advisory council mirrors the views of the majority of the county’s 90,000 senior citizens. House said many older county residents, who make up about 14% of the county’s total population, are willing to pay a little more, and do what they can to report fraud, to shield Medicare from arbitrary cuts.

The Republican Party has announced a Medicare reform plan that calls for saving $270 billion in spending over the next seven years, in part by moving more seniors into managed care programs. Under the Republican plan, monthly Medicare premiums would climb from the current $46.10 to $90 by 2002.

President Clinton has also drafted a plan that would save $124 billion in Medicare spending over 10 years, pushing premiums up to $82 by the same year.

Throughout the day, speakers and participants weighed the benefits of joining health maintenance organizations, discussed the high cost of prescription drugs and addressed other topics particularly important to aging Americans. Loud applause punctuated a suggestion by Dr. Lanyard Dial of Ventura County Medical Center that the nation pursue universal health-care coverage.

Organizers and participants will send suggestions about how to implement the White House conference resolutions to Washington, where they will eventually be presented to the President and Congress in a report next year.

“Some of these resolutions may very well lead to amended legislation or new legislation,” said Bob Blancato, executive director of the White House Conference on Aging. “But a lot of our resolutions will also raise public awareness, improve education and influence the business and private sector.”