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Griffin Daily News
Time Running Out To Sign Up
For Volunteer Doctor Insurance
EDITOR’S NOTE: Time is
running out for old folks to sign
up for the voluntary doctor bill
insurance part of Medicare. The
facts are explained in the
following dispatch written for
EPI by the head of the Social
Security Administration.
By ROBERT M. BALL
Commissioner of Social Security
Written for EPI
WASHINGTON (UPD—
People 65 and older who missed
their first chance to enroll in
Medicare's voluntary doctor bill
insurance have only three days
more in which to sign up.
The open enrollment period
for the program that supple
ments the basic hospital Insur
ance under Medicare ends
chef.
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2
Thursday, March 28, 1968
Monday, April 1.
Social Security district offices
all over the country will be open
until 9 p.m. Monday to help
with last-minute enrollments.
But older people, who want the
protection that helps pay doctor
bills and other medical ex
penses, should not wait until the
last minute.
Those already signed up do
not, of course, need to do
anything. Their protection will
automatically continue.
Practically everyone 65 and
over is automatically covered
by the basic hospital Insurance
under Medicare. The supple
mentary doctor bill insurance is
voluntary and there are only
certain times when enrollment
In the program is open.
Over 9 out of 10 people 65 and
over enrolled for the supplemen
tary doctor bill insurance at the
time of their first opportunity
just before the Medicare
program began operation a year
and a half ago—or as they
reached their 65th birthdays.
Another 650,000 people have
signed up since October 1, 1967,
the beginning of the current
open enrollment period. Os the
19.6 million older people In the
country, million are now
enrolled for the doctor bill
insurance to supplement their
basic hospital insurance under
Medicare.
Persons 65 and over who are
not yet enrolled, and who again
fail to sign up by next Monday,
April 1, will have to wait
another year and pay a higher
premium. Much can happen In
the meantime.
People 65 and over are more
likely than those in other age
groups to need a doctor’s care—
and less likely to have adequate
insurance protection against the
cost of possible doctor bills.
Most Blue Cross-Blue Shield
plans and commercial insurance
companies have, in fact, rewrit
ten their policies for people 65
and over to supplement, but not
duplicate. Medicare.
Therefore It may not be
possible to obtain this basic
medical insurance coverage in
any other way—and certainly
not for as low a premium.
Hie doctor bill insurance
premium under Medicare is $4
a month, one-half the cost. The
other half is paid out of general
federal revenues.
The improvements made in
the Medicare program by the
1967 amendments provide addi
tional good reasons for electing
the doctor bill insurance cover
age.
For example, if an older
person has the supplementary
medical insurance coverage, it
will now pay the full reasonable
charges for X-ray or laboratory
services while he is confined to
a hospital.
Also, he will have coverage
for physical, therapy services
provided by a clinic or agency
and given to him at home or
elsewhere, and he will have
coverage of outpatient hospital
services.
Another change in the law
makes it easier to collect
where an older person’s doctor
does not wish to. accept
assignment and be paid direct
ly.
Under the old law, the
doctor’s bill had to be paid
before the patient could collect
the medicare payment. Now the
Medicare payment can be made
in these cases even if the
doctor’s bill has not yet been
An explanation of these and
other changes in Medicare was
sent to older people known not
to be signed up for the doctor
bill insurance, along with a card
to send back indicating whether
or not they wanted the
supplementary coverage. Any
one who has lost the card, or
who did not get one in the mail,
may sign up at his nearest
Social Security office.
This would be a good time for
the families of older people to
check with them to see whether
they understand the necessary
steps to be taken to assure
protection against the often high
and unpredictable costs of
illness in the later years—costs
that can affect the entire
family’s budget.
LOVESPELL
LONDON (UPD—Leslie J.
McDonald, 35, of Jamaica told
the jury trying him Monday he
slashed his wife to death
because she put an obeah spell
on him to make him love only
her. He said he still was under
the influence of the voodoo
spell.
WAKEFIED, England (UPD
—Grandfather Arthur Whitley,
75, searched high and low when
his spare set of dentures
vanished.
Eventually he found them . . .
carefully fixed in the mouth of
his granddaughter’s toy horse.
The little girl’s mother said
“I used them to add a bit of
realism.’
Callaway, Woodruff Setups
Under Congressional Eyes
WASHINGTON (UPI* — The
Callaway and Woodruff founda
tions in Georgia are examples
of tax-exempt operations that
may need congressional atten
tion, according to a House
Small Business subcommittee.
The foundations were men
tioned in a report Issued by the
subcommittee headed by Rep.
Wright Patman, D-Tex., which
is investigating the impact of
tax-free foundations on the na
tional economy.
The discussion of the Calla
way Foundation — en
titled “Keeping it In the Fam
ily” — accused the LaGrange
based foundation of “self-deal
ing” to allow a family to keep
assets “away from unfriendly
parties such as competitors.”
The subcommittee noted that
this is not a violation of "pres
ent law.”
“The Callaway Foundation...
affords another excellent illus
tration of how to sell a valuable
company and still keep it in the
family,” the report said. The
report listed a long series of
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9 y/s
GOLD STORAGE 76 feet below the busy streets of New
York’s financial district holds more than a quarter of all
the official monetary gold of the free world. About $13.4
billion worth is stored in 120 compartments held by more
than 70 countries and watched cohstantly by “sitters.**
Sales occasion frequent transfers and gold is shifted bar
by bar from one compartment to another.
transactions as far back as
1944, involving foundations, Cal
laway Mills, and the Ttextlle
Benefit Association of La-
Grange.
The association contributed
28,884 shares of Callaway Mills
stock, and the foundation
bought another 1,147 shares in
1945. Later all the shares were
changed for preferred stock,
and in 1946 all shares were re
deemed. The mill went into
liquidation in 1947, and the
foundation got all the firm’s
shares between then and 1958.
In 1965, the report said, the
foundation sold 120,000 shares
to Callaway, Inc., and then sold
machinery back to the mill in
1966.
“Has the Callaway family ir
revocably parted with the Cal
laway Mills Co.?” the subcom
mittee wondered. “Oddly
enough, on Nov. 26, 1965, one
day before the Callaway Foun
dation sold 100 per cent of the
Callaway Mills Co. stock to Cal
laway, Inc., the Fuller E. Cal
laway Foundation of LaGrange
purchased 66 2.3 per cent of
Callaway, Inc., stock for $2,000,-
100.”
‘‘Here is the interlock pic
ture,” the committee continued.
‘‘Mr. Fuller E. Callaway Jr. Is
a trustee of both the Callaway
Foundation, Inc., and the Fuller
E. Callaway Foundation. Mrs.
Fuller E. Callaway Jr. is also
a trustee of the Fuller E. Cal
laway Foundation. Mrs. Charles
D. Hudson is a trustee of both
the Callaway Foundation and
the Fuller E. Callaway Foun
dation. Mrs. Ida Callaway Hud
son is a trustee of the Fuller
E. Callaway Foundation.”
The Emily and Ernest Wood
ruff Foundation appeared in a
long list of foundations that
hold more than 5 per cent of
the stock shares of various
business enterprises. The Wood
ruff Foundation was listed by
the subcommittee as owning
132,554 shares of stock in Coca-
Cola International Corp., the
result of gifts ajid purchases
made between 1938 and 1960.
The subcommittee said this was
16 per cent of the corporation’s
outstanding shares, having a
value of about $93.8 million.