| OCR Text |
Show Monday, February ... Life , II v H THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, 1, 1993 Paee C7 becomes daily M tar f f By R.A. ZALDIVAR ' .V Knight-Ridde- r Newspapers - WASHINGTON For 36.6 million Americans without health insurance, daily life is a gamble that Tylenol and Pepto Bismol can cure whatever ails them. Their faces are as familiar as your next-doneighbor's: a substitute teacher in Ohio, a federal employee in Texas, a couple who lost their store in California, a young woman working in the famiall ly business in Pennsylvania in no a that of exists part problem other Western democracy. "It's about time that somebody sat down and looked at the fact that some of us in the middle who aren't at the poverty level or over 65 need health care," said Joy Reese, 22, who works for her brother in Philadelphia and has no insurance. "If we don't get coverage, we might not be around to pay taxes," she added. Bill Clinton has promised coverage for all. His idea is to gradually bring in the uninsured as controls on health care costs start working. That could take until 2000, and supporters are urging Clinton to speed up the timetable, despite concerns about an deficit. "First, people need the coverage desperately," said Lois Salisbury, a San Francisco lawyer working on universal coverage in California. "In addition, if we commit ourselves up front to cover everybody, we will of necessity have to get costs down. It will be the ultimate motivating factor." Right now, the cost of caring for the uninsured is passed on to those with coverage. Uninsured people drive up health care costs by putting off care until a serious illness develops. About a quarter of the uninsured are children. Troubling as it is, the statistic that 36.6 million Americans are uninsured may actually understate the problem. It's a snapshot figure. A recent timeline study found that 62 million people nearly one in four were without coverage for at least one month over a period. More than half the uninsured work full time paying taxes that support government health programs for the elderly, the poor and veterans. --I or - ' 1 AP Photo Rural mail carrier August Sutter, 83, of Harvel, III, delivers mail near Raymond, III., in early January. Sutter has served as mail carrier for 64 years, a record for the Postal Service. Nation's longest-servin- g mail carrier retires after 64 years on the job ever-increasi- By CHRISTOPHER WILLS Associated Press Writer - You can't HARVEL, 111. call August Sutter impulsive. He has, after all, delivered mail along the same country roads for 64 years and lived in the same house 73 years. g So when the nation's mail carrier decides to retire, you know he's thought it over carefully. "I would continue to carry mail, only my, wife isn't too well. Time to be home with her, spending our last few years tosays gether," the with a country twang. Today is Sutter's last day on the job. He loves his work, loves to talk about the early days in an unheated Model-- T or, when the reads were bad, on horseback. He dismisses the length of his career with a brief "I was but lingers over the intricacies of mail processing. He has seen plenty of changes longest-servin- well-satisfie- d" since he became a rural mail car- good job. But that is only part of rier back in 1929. Roads im- the answer. "The big point is, you're on proved, cars improved, postmasters came and went, stamps grew your own, nobody looking over more expensive, mail trains vanyour shoulder," he says. ished and computers appeared. "You're out there with nature. Apparently only one other You watch them put in the crops, a window clerk see them come up and grow and postal worker has been on the job longer harvest." than Sutter, and only by a few And there's the people. months, says Postal Service "You know all your paspokeswoman Debra Hawkins. Among mail carriers, Sutter trons," he says, sitting in his den decorated with family photos and leads the pack. "He's seen about everything a plaques commemorating his person could see," says Robert years of service. "As they come Herman, Sutter's postmaster in to the mailbox, why, you get acthe small central Illinois town of quainted with them. I give all the '' Raymond. "It just makes the of- kids gum, you know. He put about a million miles fice a little better having him on his five cars as he crept from here." Three local carriers have a mailbox to mailbox during the chance to claim Sutter's route, morning hours. Sutter's first Herman says. The three together route was 31 miles and he was have a little better than half Sutpaid $2,010 a year, with a travel allowance. ter's experience. The route has expanded to 80 What keeps him on the road? At first, it was just the work, miles, and the pay has climbed to he says. During the Depression, about $25,000 and 34.5 cents a you didn't turn your back on a mile. th Phone number mistake mixes steaks, bonds PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) -The home of the "Neanderthal Caveman Cut" is having a little technoltrouble with ogy, ' Archie's Tavern Restaurant and Marketplace is located in Rhode Island, area code 401. Alex. Brown & Sons, a Baltimore brokerage and investment banking 'firm, has the same phone number, .areacode410. Until November, Baltimore had a 301 area code. So hundreds of harried investors t'have remembered the "4" but 20th-centu- ry v transposed the two other digits. They reach Archie's, which slab of prime rib sells a called the "Neanderthal Caveman Cut" for $14.95, but doesn't do much in the way of pork bellies and soybean futures. "It's absolutely incredible," said Nancy Castellucci, 36, a restaurant. of the 450-secourse of a day, the numthe "In ber of calls we get for them is absolutely amazing. " Archie's receives about 30 calls a day for Alex. Brown, Castellucci said. co-own-er at FORT LAUDERDALE, This town has a science Fla. museum and a beautiful new beach. But it has become too stodgy of late and needs an infusion of college students. So say entrepreneurs who are inviting thousands of spring breakers back to Fort Lauderdale. "Now most of the strong break opponents g have been removed from office," said a letter from Concierge Consultants, the group that organized the movement. "The majority of businesses and residents of Broward want spring breakers back." The letter is part of a welcobooklet sent to me-back fraternities, 2,329 sororities and 3,679 travel agents in 378 U.S. cities. Concierge Consultants supplies concierge services to hotels around the county. Group spokesman Don Meyer said the city's economy has gone into decline since spring breakers forsook Fort Lauderdale for Daytona Beach. Attitudes about spring break have turned around, Meyer said, since its opponents left office: Sheriff Nick Navarro, Mayor Bob Cox, City Commissioner Doug Danziger, Tourist anti-sprin- 4,-3- 21 Chairwoman Nicki Grossman and Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau President Richard Weav- we appeal to. The whole mood in the town has changed," Meyer said. "What?!!" exclaimed Anne Martone, director of the Broward County Hotel and Motel Association, when told of the booklet. Any attempt to bring back the bad old days would be irresponsible and unconscionable, she said. "The industry and the community have spent millions of dollars moving away from the spring break image." booklet, entitled The 1993" and conBreak "Spring ads for clubs, of sisting mostly restaurants and hotels, does bring back images of contests that lured 350,000 students a year to the beach. The Candy Store, a spring break legend in its time, is ofbeer chugfering belly-floand wet ging, bikini contests. And the Baja Beach Club boasts, "Ladies drink free seven nights a week 'till 9 p.m.!!" An unnamed escort service promises to be courteous and discreet, while providing 10-pa- ge p, teenie-ween- k, o Lund-Garne- r, 1 11-- ear-ol- the first two floors. Sano predicted it would set a trend for those seeking a final restTOKYO Even in death, ing place in big Japanese cities. Demand for space in Tokyo's there's no respite from crowding in the Japanese capi- eight municipal cemeteries far tal. So a Buddhist temple is build- outstrips supply. The city said it ing a kind of condominium for the received nearly 10 times as many y a hereafter applications last year as there were with room for 3,500. available plots. At especially popuFrom the outside, it will look lar locations, applications outnumlike any sleek Tokyo office buildber gravesites 40 to one. with tile and lots of ing, gleaming The demographics of Japan's chrome. Inside, seven floors will be filled with tombstones of polaging society will only make the ished imported granite, with tiled crunch worse, officials say. The average price for plot and aisleways, natural lighting and a shrine on every floor. gravestone is about $32,000. PriThe $56 million tower of crypts vate cemeteries are generally more should be ready to hold cremated expensive and harder to get into. ji remains by March 1994, the Scattering of ashes, illegal until Temple says. recently, is still rare. Some fami"I hope everyone who comes lies either out of sentiment or will have a quiet spiritual feeling," because they're strapped for cash said the temple's brown-robe- d keep ashes at home on family y period priest, Sengaku Sano, raising his altars long after the voice above the din of construccalled for in Buddhist tradition. tion. "It will be very beautiful." Desperate relatives have even vaults, Washing machine-size- d complete with gravestone, will been known to abandon urns on start at about $22,500. A prime trains because the national railway location near a balcony or along will provide burials for unclaimed the main walkways will cost ashes. A few years ago, another Tokyo more, Sano said. No sales figures were available. temple sought to win converts by Though the project was promptoffering free gravesites to new aded by modern-da- y trends like urherents. But Shohoji, affiliated ban congestion and steep land with the Nichiren Buddhist sect, prices, it has roots in Japanese said no such incentive is being offered here. tradition. Cemeteries have always teen on Sano said the dead of all faiths only the temple grounds this temrle in the are of be welcome would grounds provided, of air. The temple itself will occupy course, their relatives can pay. - jam-pack- ed er. "Let us go after the market irt The new area code for much of eastern Maryland was needed because there were too many 301 phone numbers, said Dave Pachol-czya spokesman for Bell Atlantic's Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone in Baltimore. The phone company announced the change in 1990 and Alex. Brown made the appropriate changes on company letterhead and business cards well in advance, said Jami McDonald, vice president of marketing for Alex. "Obviously we feel badly," McDonald said. "They're being put in a situation where they're spending a lot of time answering the phone for another business. "We've been in business at the same address for almost 200 years and had the same phone number for several decades until the area code was changed," she said. "There isn't much we could do. " Castellucci said Alex. Brown customers are politely given the proper that's 410 area code. "After all, we're in the service industry, too," she said. er By LAURA KING Associated Press Writer and Development Council Sun-Sentin- el what the company does," she said. Lund-Garn- Tombs with a view' rise above Tokyo skyline Fort Lauderdale businesses seek return of spring break By TAO WOOLFE Fort Lauderdale "I don't even know Most work in businesses with said. "That's a hell of a choice to fewer than 100 employees, but have to make in America. " Noralee they can turn up in unexpected Garner is a commercial urtisi places. Government data indicates that some 75,000 people working who paints Christmas scenes in for the nation's largest employer and around Long Beach, Calif., Uncle Sam are uninsured be- every year. She and her he band. Glen Garner, lost their video store cause they can't afford the premin the recession. Their house is in iums. How do you cope if you don't foreclosure, and they have no health insurance. have coverage? About a week before Christmas, You just hope pain goes away. You seek out sympathetic doctors Noralee had a heart attack m her who give you free samples of prehome, as she relaxed after a day with bills You run spent painting a bank window. up scriptions. Paramedics took her to a nearby doctors and hospitals. second-class And you get used to hospital, which admitted her. On Christmas Eve. Garner saitl she treatment. "I can't stand the attitude of the and her husband got a not-s- subtle people I'm dealing with," said hint that she belonged in the county Noralee 56, a Long hospital, where they take the uninhad a sured. who artist Beach, Calif., "I said I did not want to o, heart attack before Christmas and would rather die first," said Garhas no coverage. "It's, 'Tough who feared getting rxx)r qualisweetie. ner, not It's luck, my prob' lem.' They don't say that, but it's ty care. "I cried all day long. ' She home went their attitude." against her doctor's orders. unfrom stories are some Here "I told my husband. 'Why insured Americans: should I stay here and run a bill you The Russos can't pay?'" she said. '"I mijihtas Donna Russo, 57, substitute teaches around Akron, Ohio, but mostly well go home. If I croak, it's a little she cares for an cheaper.'" Danny Turner granddaughter so her own daughTurner, 45, makes $11.74 an ter can work. John Russo, 55, worked nearly hour as an inspector in a federal 20 years for Goodyear and was laid warehouse in Fort Worth. Texas. off a little over 10 years ago. He He had health insurance, but he now works part time as a superdropped it because he has to make y market bagger and sells real estate. child support payments for his d son. "I've worked all my life and "It's really a shame," Turner being without insurance is really said. Russo said. "You "If I went to the hospital, I embarrassing," second-clas- s would have to go to the county like feel a do really which is for lower incitizen." hospital for come people. But because 1 have a The Russos are too young when and Medicare, they applied good job, I would be expected to for Medicaid, they made $2 too pay a large share of it . " much to qualify. Both have recentMany people assume that everyly put off care for problems that one who works for the government has coverage. Indeed, the federal turned out to be serious. Before Christmas, John's left elemployee health plan is touted as a bow got swollen and hot. He model for national reform. But thought it was tendonitis and tried tens of thousands of employees to take care of it himself, until his cannot afford the insurance, which forearm swelled so big it looked is less generous than what most like Arnold Schwarzenegger's. large firms provide. When he finally went to the doc"The government used to be a model employer," considered the he was ordered to tor, hospital said John Sturdivant, presiJent of immediately. He had a the American Federation of Govinfection. "The doctor said, 'John, you ernment Employees. "It's no don't have a choice. If you don't longer a leader." go to the hospital now, you won't be here (much longer,)'" Russo The Reese Family said. With insurance, he would Larry and Suzanne Reese, both have seen the doctor sooner. 28, own an auto tag agency in PhilMeanwhile, Donna Russo was adelphia. They went without covcontending with a bout of recurerage for two years, but then Larry ring back pain. When it came on got a job with health benelits as a really strong after New Year's, she public transit bus driver. Now Larry and Suzanne are infinally went to the doctor. The diagnosis: pleurisy, an inflammation sured, and their worries are over. of the membrane around the lungs. But the business doesn't bring in John's bill for a three-da- y hospienough to buy coverage for Lartal stay will probably be written off ry's younger sister Joy. who manas charity care. (It came to $2,668, ages one of their two offices. more than they make in four "It bothers me to no end to have will Russos the But have work for me and not be able to her months.) to come up with money for Dongive her insurance," said Larry. na's treatment. And they're still About one in five uninsured workers are in firms with fewer than 10 paying off other doctor bills. "We all get sick, and we should employees. be able to go to the doctor or hospiJoy Reese has started having tal without feeling we are charity sharp chest pains lately, but she's cases," Donna said. put off going to the doctor, even "You either pay your bills, or though her brother has offered to you pay for your medicine," John pay. ie nine-stor- tomb-with-a-vi- Sho-ho- 49-da- i i i J ! " . ; w -- . '1 "" AP Construction proceeds on a nine - story building to house tombs Tokyo In this photo taken Jan. 13. V in |
