| Show 10A Standard-Examine- r Saturday Feb 3 1990 Opinion 1 Insurance pay-oplan a good move ut One of the more cream e ideas to be advanced to assist older Americans most confined to nursing homes is a plan to allow the use of benefits of their life insurance policies while they are still living Designed by the Prudential Life Insurance Co its provisions would help case the growing crisis in long-termedical care costs and the enormous burdens it places on families who must care for an elderly invalid parent it will provide financial assisTitled “living tance to policy holders whose doctors certify they have no more than six months to live In addition patients who have been in nursing homes for at least six months and m pay-out- s" are expected to remain there permanently also would be eligible to receive pay-ou- ts The move follows a year-lon- g experiment in Canada there Prudential's subsidiary provided advance payment s 14 of death benefits to many of them policy-holder- suffering from AIDS and Ten states already have approved living pay-outhe introduce now is to the company seeking permission 3 million all About in states remaining program Prudential policyholders nationwide would be eligible for the program Other large life insurance companies with millions more customers are expected to introduce similar programs soon ts The insurance reform reflects growing concern over one of the biggest problems facing older Americans and the medical terminally ill — the staggering cost of long-term treatment particularly confinement in a nursing home are available to holders of all types of Living Prudential life policies offering benefits that would normally be paid only to the policyholder’s heirs The amount paid out is equal to the life benefit specified in the policy less a small amount representing the company's lost interest pay-ou- ts The Bush administration and Congress already are exploring ways to lessen the growing burden of America's health care costs as life expectancy grows and medical treatment becomes more expensive Costs for medical services rose by 84 percent nationwide last year Healthcare costs are expected to become an even more severe problem throughout the 1990s More than 37 million Americans have no health coverage and therefore receive grossly inadequate care Congress should explore more thoroughly the advantages of creative insurance programs such as the Prudential living pay-oIt does at least provide a safety net and one capable of being expanded greatly ut Lithuanian independence has worldwide implications Distance between Moscow Lithuania too far to bridge Martha Brill Olcott Public opinion in Lithuania where 80 percent of the population is Lithuanian strongly supports secession The members f oi Scipps tiovid'S Uttn Lithuanians are moving wnh determined steps towards secession Irom the Soviet L’mon and Mikhail Gorbachev will grudgingly accept their exit even knowing ihe precedent that this will set Recently Gorbachev put on a vintage performance to try to convince the Lithuanians that their best hope lor the future is a united communist par-l- v and a sovereign tepubhc within a redefined Soviet 1 nion But the polite rejection that his impassioned speeches received highlights the unbridgeable distance between Moscow and the Lithuanian nationalists Moscow opposes secession for the hardships it will mean both lor Soviets who have settled in the region and for it e nation as a whole T he Lithuanians atgue that as a conquered and involuntarily colonized people they have no responsibility for the hardships of the colonizer W h ilc the nationalist movement — Sujudis — developed mere slowlv in Lithuania than in the other two Baltic repub us it became a mass movement in a matter of dayb The gtoup's agenda of a sovereign Lithuania soon was adopted by the Lithuanian ( omniums! Party Sajudis then advocated full independence for lathuana and its candidates for election to the Supreme Sov let of Li’huatua will campaign under this platform Members of the communist paly decided to field candidates in a parts independent of Moscow and it was their secession f on the ( omniums! Party of the Soviet fi mon that pnm pied Gorbachev's trip 7 he eurrenl Supreme Soviet of 1 nhuama a body elected five yeais agio in uocontesud elections has culled lot legislj’ion to lx d'uhed outlining a procedure for secession It has ahead' made Lnl uanan the state language has mandated an economical!' autonomous lepuHu wuh as own cut'cnv has created a ithuaman ii'Pablii Citiens! ip with ctitena lot the inclusion and exclusion o) other Si-lets has repealed the u’tcle of tnc Iithuantatt constitution that guarantees the lead ng role of the communist party and has ntruduud a 1 v niulu-paM- y svstern in the republi' of the Supreme Soviet to be elected this spring can be expected lo endorse this demand This will create a crisis for Gorbachev because there is little he can do to get the Lithuanians lo back off from this position Promises of constitutional changes lo make a sovereign Lithuania virtually independent m all but name cannot be persuasive given how long legislation on a freer press on religion on property and on land regulation have remained pending m the new legislative process multi-pa- rty leg-islut- public secession n Many nationals would support the aspnations of the Lithuanians Russian public opinion is changing as well as the violence in the Caucasus makes clear the human and financial costs of maintaining a multinational state However the Lithuanians are unlikely to await a national vote or to accept terms of exit which it is i umoted will requue that they assume responsibi'i-i- v for tesettlmg those who oppose secession or that Var II dethey tepuy Moscow tor the velopment of the region non-Russia- post-oil- d Vv hi'te puny leaders and legislators in Moscow secession in abstraction the Lithuanians will de-ha- te use legislation and referenda to deelare their mde-p- e nde nee Goibuchev weary of ethnic cor Get and knowing fiat the lithuanan du'Sion reflects the popu'ar w ’I and not that of a r n p we-will likely urn ! Me is attentions to the complexities of unravelr g the lor g eland r g u no'-’i- c po1 tieal arid f jman e oti in t ions be twit n I ithuanu arid the rest of the VV'R ra’heT than tryug lo use feme cr bluff mail ' pi se' e' the uni' 'll ' a' 1j' J l ' (JI ' " r l a a'l ill a' " ( I'l U 'I a' ( Ca'( Hj ' 1 r ! e 1 v i h I i ty Scons Hoao" VS Service The events rn Azerbaijan have forced Lithuania oil our front pages Let us hope that n stays there lor if the I’nned Stales has to make choices on Lithuania they will be much more excruciating than our choices on Azerbaijan It is difficult for anyone in America to criticize Soviet leader Mil hail Gorbachev's actions in too severely Sol only were some bully-bokilling Armenians arbitrarily but extremist fundamentalists were tearn fence and speaking of a ing down the L'nion and Iran Soviet the Azeri of in community in a way that threatened Soviet Ira man conflict In such circumstances any effective leader would use force to try to restore law and order Lithuania is very different Lithuania (and neighboring Lstonia and Latvia) were brutally absorbed into the Soviet L'nion only 50 years ago and the Lithuanian demands have thus far been quite Azerbaijan Moreover warnings of economic hardships are unlkely to sway a people long used lo such hardships and who now see the prospect of independent nationhood and with it an enhanced prospect for economic recovery Gorbachev's attitude towards Lithuanian secession has softened over lime and may continue lo moderate given his talent for not just accepting but also endorsing the politically inevitable He has already given tentative support to a system m the Baltics and has promised that will provide for nationwide voles on ic United States must carefully weigh its stand on Lithuania 'll ys Soviet-Irama- -- peaceful Lithuanian independence would riot produce international instability Ten perurt of the population in ithuama is Polish — and they are agitating for mine morn within Lithuama — but presumably an independent Lithuania and Poland would each) s'gn a treaty guaranteeing their herder If the Soviet I mon does use force lo suppress the I ithuaman independence movement lo Hie United States — and lo me it is inconceivable that Gorbachev Will Ut any of the republics leave lbe Soviet 1 al mon in the next five years — it will be very painful to the Lniud States 1 e lave never retogn zed the ino'poration of tl e Ba'tic states r to the Soviet I r um and we will very vigorously H mam fives are o we w II fiel uv outraged as we did about the rassaeie in 7 lariarmen Square in ( hr j 1 Inmate1 fi twqve r we can no m "c let the hag h Hu ion — bigg r S iv ut iiono” an la pi-I jve to p'otcM I r 0 Jerry F Hough If a majority of Lithfor vole uanians independence they should have it Unfortunately as attractive as this principle may seem we can't live with it in the real world Do we want to say for example that the Palestinians on the VXesl Bank can automatically have an independent slate if a majority of them vote for it? Do the Arabs of the old city of Jerusalem have the right to determine us fate? In Latin America the Indians of the Incan and Mayan civilizations are spread across a number of countries The Azeri are only one of dozens of major groups in Asia and Afncato be cut in two or more pieces by existing international borders The conflicts often are far more violent than in Azerbaidhan Just thiv iasl week a minimum of 60 people have been killed in demonstrations lor independence in kashmir m India T he L nned Stales simply cannot afford the pnn-cip- of national le that of the countries of the I nned Nations can be dismembered and rearranged by majority vote of ethnic groups The creation of a large Kurdistan out of Turkey Iran and Iraq might be desirable in principle but the effort to create one would lead to massive repression and even war Indeed the I nned Slates itself has potential problems The Navajo Indians would probably find it profitable to declare their independence lo create a small country like Monaco and to start putting cas nos and other entertainment in tourist spots such as Monument A alley and the Grand ( any on Do we warn to say that they can do this by a majority vote in a referendum' Do we want to say that the Nuvatos entered the United States any more voluntarily than the Lithuanians entered the Soviet three-quarte- rs t r ion' Hopefully the Lithuanians will not put Gorbachev and the I ruled Stales lo choices neither wants He is wi' rg to give them the kind of autonomv f as in ( anada and t at G-eperhaps they will accept th's as an interim step i de'ade r two bom now tbe Russians nav look n lbrgs d Me urn K Vk-- should encourage b is de- e i 'pin a’lj shoulJ be w ng to cnsid r a n our lw s so if at Amtncar s can invi-s- i n the se anas and he p M e m at quire th- d‘ facto in that is wiifiin the r g'asp ' j‘ n ff' ini ft i 1' ( ( mi i " j' I UK I t ii !li ! a a ltd ( ‘I I'll it ill JII I ( i o u J a in' i U 'I' " u' i) i t i bu 1 - i 1 t j 1 I v |
