Medicare: Will It Work?

Rolls closed on Medicare registration last week. Some 17.3 million people over 65 (an incredible 91% of those eligible) had signed up for the voluntary $3-a-month insurance plan that entitles them to bargain-rate doctors' care beginning July 1. On that day, a total of 19.1 million elderly people who are drawing social security benefits automatically become eligible for low-cost, Medicare-financed hospital and nursing-home care. A very automated data system stands ready in Baltimore to handle the record-keeping end of the intricate program that Health, Education and Welfare Secretary John Gardner understates...