HEARING - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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STATEMENT BY SENATOR PETE WILSON
Senator WILSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mrs. Rieger, neither you nor Mrs. Yelineck are very good witnesses
in one sense-neither of you ladies look your age. And I
must say I think you have evoked the admiration of the members
of this <strong>Committee</strong> for your courage.
Let me try to pick up on Senator Pressler's line of questioning. I
am not quite clear from what you said-was your husband a
member of any kind of a group health plan before he became incapacitated?
Mrs. RIEGER. He had a Medicare supplement is all.
Senator WILSON. But this was private insurance to supplement
his Medicare coverage in connection with group coverage from his
employment?
Mrs. RIEGER. Well, it was a group coverage when he worked at
the college, but after he left the college, you could take it out on an
individual basis.
Senator WILSON. To extend the coverage, he could continue to
contribute.
Mrs. RIEGER. Yes. But they just kept going up on us, and when it
got to $60, I could not pay it.
Senator WILSON. Sixty dollars--
Mrs. RIEGER. A month.
---Senator-WILSON. And I assume -that-you have had- no-similarkind
of opportunity to participate in any kind of an employer/employee
group plan?
Mrs. RIEGER. No, because I was one that I was not going to have
to work, you know. I was not going to work unless I just wanted to.
I mean, we were out on the farm, and yes, T worked out on the
farm.
Senator WILSON. I understand.
Mrs. RIEGER. But like I told somebody, it was not near the hard
work I am doing now. Even when I was milking cows, it was not as
hard as what I am doing now.
Senator WILSON. I gather that notwithstanding the burdens that
have been visited upon you and your husband, you still do not
qualify for Medicaid.
Mrs. RIEGER. Well, now, is Medicaid what picks up from his
Social Security?
Senator WILSON. Medicaid is available to a class that is described
as "medically indigent"-those who are suffering such heavy medical
costs-or I should say, those whose circumstances qualify them.
It is low-income. And because your husband is not working, and because
of your situation, I am not sure--
Mrs. RIEGER. Well, in the nursing home they pick up what his
Social Security check does not cover, after 6 months, but now I had
to take care of it. Well, that depleted everything.
Senator WILSON. Let me ask this question of staff, and I do not
know whether they know. Are Mrs. Rieger's circumstances such
that she is entitled to Medicaid coverage?
Mr. MCCONNELL. 1 think she gets Medicaid coverage--
Mrs. RIEGER. I think on my husband, that is probably what that
is called.