00:00:51.440 - 00:01:31.460

mhm. Uh huh. Mhm. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Mm. Mhm. Yeah, You. Hi. I'm Senator Lawton Child's. I'd like to welcome you to the Lord and Child's update today. We're going to look at long term health care in our country, and we'll see what the future holds for America's baby boomers.

00:01:31.840 - 00:01:47.660

We'll also look at an industry that's had a major impact on the economy of Northeast Florida, the port of Jacksonville. First, I want to talk to you about another growing Florida industry. Alligator farming. For many years, the Florida alligators been protected by both state and federal laws.

00:01:48.210 - 00:02:10.810

The protection works so well. In the mid 19 seventies, game wardens were receiving thousands of complaints about nuisance alligators. After a survey showed a surplus population, the commission began contracting with private hunters to remove the alligators. Money is raised from the sale of the alligator meat, and hide was then split with the commission and used for conservation studies.

00:02:11.340 - 00:02:34.060

Although still protected by law and strictly regulated, the alligator is now being commercially harvested and farms throughout the state. Since alligators don't breed well in captivity, many farmers collect their eggs from gator nest in the wild. That kind of farming is called ranching. Working with the commission, farmers use helicopters and air boats to locate the nest and collect the eggs.

00:02:34.640 - 00:02:50.020

After spotting the nest from the air, the pilot radios the location to awaiting airboat. The nest is dug up and the eggs are carefully placed in a box so as not to injure the embryo. After the collection is completed, the eggs are candle in much the same manner as chicken eggs.

00:02:50.600 - 00:03:08.060

Then they're put in an incubator. With the waiting game begins, it usually takes about 65 days for the eggs to hatch. The hatchlings began to feed within 10 days. Frank Godwin owns Gator Land Zoo in Orlando. His business is both a tourist attraction and a working alligator farm.

00:03:08.640 - 00:03:31.340

Frank's father, Owen, opened the landmark Gator Zoo in 1948 and was active in its operation until his death in 1975. A third generation Owens grandchildren now work at Gatorland with their father, Frank explained the step by step process of raising and harvesting alligators. We we breathe the alligators here on premises have breeding facilities for them.

00:03:31.350 - 00:03:50.650

Alligators breed once a year, by the way, and we hatched the eggs in a special incubator, and then we take the alligators through a series of steps. Uh, using the most modern alligator husband treat techniques has been developed by the University of Florida, primarily and some of the other researchers throughout the state.

00:03:51.350 - 00:04:10.950

And, uh, we grow the alligators for about two years, 2 to 3 years until they're 6 ft long. At this time, they're they're harvested and, uh, the media's process and solder restaurants. And then we take the hide and send them to tanneries, where the highest tan into a beautiful finish leather.

00:04:11.540 - 00:04:25.150

It's brought back to Gator Land, and then we send it out to what we call fabricators who make the boots and the wallets and purses and belts and things of this nature, and we retail those to our facilities here at Gator Land. So where were we?

00:04:25.150 - 00:04:47.020

We do the whole ball of wax, so to speak. Starting from the egg all the way up to the finished product, the young gators have fed a diet of fish, liver, beef and chickens. The 8 to 10 inch long hatchlings will grow another 12 inches in length by their first birthday, baby alligators are called hatchlings, and we maintain them for the first year at 96 degrees.

00:04:47.020 - 00:05:03.360

And the reason for that is that, uh, many millions of years ago, back in the age of the dinosaur, of course, alligators date back some 80 million years. Uh, with very little evolutionary changes, the Earth's temperature was quite a bit higher than what it is now.

00:05:03.740 - 00:05:21.370

So the researchers kind of figured well, if the Earth's temperature was that high back 80 million years ago, when the reptiles grew so large, maybe they need more heat. So we kicked the temperature up to about 96 degrees, and then they grow like crazy, especially when you give him a high protein diet.

00:05:21.380 - 00:05:50.930

So we feed these guys six days a week on primarily ground fish, with some liver and some beef thrown in, and then some vitamin supplements on top of that and what What we're finding under ideal conditions is that hash link can grow to a length of about 4 ft in the first year, which is, as you know, it's, uh, it's astounding how fast they really can grow when, when they're pushed well, it takes.

00:05:50.940 - 00:06:11.860

It takes about two years. 2 to 3 years. The first two winners. The alligators are heated. Uh, they're grown in heated houses. We hold the house is about 96 degrees. Uh, so after the second winter, we take them and put them in outside, grow out facilities where they where they finished growing, uh, for the summer months.

00:06:11.860 - 00:06:32.950

And then we start harvesting from there, and that cycle takes on the outside about three years to grow a marketable size alligator, which is 6 ft long. The Florida Game in Fresh Water Fish Commission is responsible for enforcing the laws governing the alligator industry. John Moran is a wildlife inspector with the commission the game commissioners involved.

00:06:33.340 - 00:07:14.630

Still, after all these years, and protecting and regulating alligators statewide and the alligators themselves are still protected by state law, therefore requiring permission or authorization for anyone to do practically anything with alligators and in that role as a wall. If inspector, we come out and check with the alligator farmers to make sure that they are obliging by those regulations and maintaining records of what comes and goes through their alligator farms to maintain good information on what's happening with alligator farms and in some instances, possibly to keep the wild illegal harvest from coming into the commercial alligator farm situations.

00:07:14.720 - 00:07:31.550

Alligators are sometimes difficult to raise in captivity. That's why Gail and turned to the University of Florida for help. The university has been working with them on several research projects. We went to the University of Florida, and we were lucky enough to find a gentleman by the name of Doctor Paul Cardiac.

00:07:31.810 - 00:07:51.950

And, uh, he has headed up our research program here and with other farms throughout the state, developing the the correct alligator husband treat techniques that will enable you to grow an alligator faster. For example, it used to take us four years to grow an alligator up to 6 ft.

00:07:52.440 - 00:08:12.920

Well, we've got that down to three years now. We're working on two years, and this is solely due to the research that the University of Florida has done on alligator uh, diets, for example, that the right protein mix alligators are are meat eaters are carnivores, and they eat strictly meat.

00:08:12.920 - 00:08:30.130

So, yeah, even at that, you have to find the right diet for them that they have the right vitamins and the right nutrition to make them grow the same way with the heated houses, heated water so on and so forth. When an alligator reaches a length of about 6 ft, it's harvested in skin and a game commission tag.

00:08:30.130 - 00:08:49.660

An ID number is attached to its high, sunny sand explained the use of the game commission tag. The reason for the tag is that whenever you ship, it hides, you got a state number on it. I got a record on this tag of this gator come off of.

00:08:50.340 - 00:09:10.110

There's also a meat sale to see that goes around it. This tag and that meets him to correspond with the boxes you got that Gator in was done to the Game and Fish Commission. So you know, wherever Gators and tag is, and when you send it out of state, it goes out to the tannery.

00:09:10.110 - 00:09:29.370

They tended dot what ain't gonna comes back with his tags still in it, and then you shape at the various places wherever and then that's when you look at the tag off, at least in the tag back to us. We keep them right on here on record so you can come in here and more to know about.

00:09:29.370 - 00:09:50.410

A David was killed three or four years ago. I can look up the tag number, tell you the pen had come out of when he was born, how much he weighed, how much media was processed out of it, and he bought it. Lola. The alligator meat is cut trim box and frozen before shipment to restaurants.

00:09:50.700 - 00:10:07.150

The alligators I D number is written on the box of meat and must match the one attached to the high. That same tag is then returned to Gator Land. After the hide has been sold. Complete records must be kept for every animal. This allows the Game Commission to track business and prevent illegal sales.

00:10:07.560 - 00:10:28.890

Frank sees Alligator farming is a growing business in Florida. I I see alligator farming as as a viable business for the state of Florida. There's there's no question about it. Florida has the resource, uh, that the wild resource. There's several programs in the state now. Where where were harvesting from the wild eggs and hatch links?

00:10:29.540 - 00:10:53.760

Uh, so I think as we move in this direction, you're going to see more alligator farms, crank up and and get started, and I think in another 56 years, maybe even 10 years down the road, you're gonna see alligator farming is a very viable and, uh, income producing, uh, segment of, uh, of our business here in Florida.

00:10:54.910 - 00:11:10.160

The game commission continues to monitor the collection of eggs, a key part of the survival of both the alligator and the farming business. The money raised by the sale of alligator eggs is used to finance further study of the animal, a program called value added conservation.

00:11:10.740 - 00:11:32.850

Meanwhile, the alligator continues to thrive in the while adding to Florida's unique wildlife habitat. Yeah, when we return, we'll see what the future holds for long term health care. Yeah, this is the increasingly competitive world we live in, and this is the country we want ahead of the competition.

00:11:33.240 - 00:11:51.450

These are the people will be depending on to keep this country ahead of the competition. These are the colleges and universities were relying on for the people were depending on to keep this country ahead of the competition. So if you want America to stay number one in the world, do something about it.

00:11:51.540 - 00:12:13.260

Give to the college of your choice. Welcome back Right now, members of Congress are ironing out differences between the Senate and House bills to provide catastrophic health insurance for many Americans. Meanwhile, the debate on long term health care the single largest catastrophic expense for the elderly is just beginning.

00:12:13.940 - 00:12:33.560

By 1995 the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be spending more money that is taking in, and trustees believe the Medicare deficit will reach $25 billion. Add to that another $60 billion for a possible new long term health care program, and you'll quickly see higher resources will be stretched.

00:12:34.130 - 00:12:57.910

This means in seven short years we'll have to come up with $85 billion to cover a new program and keep Medicare itself afloat. With all that in mind, I called a hearing on the issue of long term health care. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I'm concerned about the quality and the amount of care that would be needed for elderly and the cost associated with a new program.

00:12:57.940 - 00:13:15.560

I began the hearing by highlighting our country's present commitment to long term care. In the meantime, study after study has shown that many individuals in need of support of long term care services are not receiving them. The population of those in need of long term care is rapidly rising.

00:13:16.140 - 00:13:38.760

Medical care Cost increase to show no sign of debating of a baby. Elderly incomes will rise, but not fast enough to keep up with the increase in long term care costs. And more support will be needed for patients without any change. In our current policy, that total expenditure will be as high as 80 billion by 95 with the federal share at 26 billion.

00:13:39.940 - 00:14:08.240

When the baby boomers start reaching long term care age between 2025 2030 we're getting up to 175 year, with the federal share of leaping to 56 billion. I should mention that some would say these projections are somewhat conservative. This is like a midline projection taking into account demographic changes in medical care prices only does not include increases in intensity.

00:14:08.250 - 00:14:26.610

Higher priced, more intensive care as medical technology increases does not take into account pressures. It would be brought on the long term care system by the increasing number of AIDS bishop, and even so, the numbers are huge. We've not yet figured a way to pay for these current policy increases.

00:14:27.140 - 00:14:58.150

Just assuming that the federal share remains at a constant 32% of total long term care costs. We also know what happens is when the federal share goes up. Usually, the overall costs go up tremendously, too. If we include long term care coverage under Medicare, as is now being proposed in several bills, that federal proportion would go up and we'll be talking about way more than $150 billion a year by 2030.

00:14:58.740 - 00:15:18.860

The cost of long term care will continue to rise as our elderly population increases. Dr. Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and visiting professor at Harvard. She said the number of older people will grow rapidly over the next three decades, and the cost for their care will more than triple.

00:15:19.440 - 00:15:43.960

Our study makes detailed projections of the disabled elderly population in the year 2020 which is actually not very long from now, together with their income and resources and likely use of long term care. Assuming that mortality rates continue to decline. Incomes and inflation continued to grow at moderate levels, and current policies with respect to financing long term care do not change.

00:15:44.750 - 00:16:07.660

These projections show that over the next three decades, first, the number of older people will grow rapidly, especially the bell are very elderly and because they will be older and increased portion of the elderly population will be disabled. Second, the real incomes of the populations age 65 to 74 will more than double over three decades.

00:16:08.040 - 00:16:33.860

But the incomes of those over age 85 will grow only about 17% after inflation. Third, spending for long term care will rise rapidly, with total spending for nursing homes more than tripling in real terms. Assuming that nursing home utilization rates remain constant by age and nursing home costs rise at the same rate as real wages.

00:16:34.350 - 00:16:56.160

Those are fairly conservative. That's something. And fourth, although both private and public spending for long term care will rise rapidly, public spending, principally Medicaid, will rise faster, and the proportion of nursing home patients dependent on Medicaid will actually increase a little bit or will not decrease.

00:16:57.500 - 00:17:23.270

This last result is surprising since the overall economic well being of the elderly is expected to improve substantially over the period. One might ask why they become increasingly dependent on a program intended for the poor. The answer is that long term care costs are projected to rise faster than the incomes of the very elderly, which are the group most likely to use long term care.

00:17:23.840 - 00:17:45.890

Thus, those with the greatest risk of needing care will actually be worse off in the future in terms of their ability to pay for it. One possible solution being discussed is the role that private insurance companies can play in long term care. Daniel Bork is the former chairman of the long term Health Care Policy Task Force for the Department of Health and Human Services.

00:17:45.900 - 00:18:09.560

He believes private insurance can provide much of the long term protection needs. The public and private sectors should take immediate steps to encourage the expansion of long term care insurance. The heightened awareness of the need for financial protection against the potentially ruinous costs of long term care services make this an ideal time for stimulating growth and long term care coverage.

00:18:10.090 - 00:18:36.460

The market will need time to develop, and the sooner we begin, the better. In just the past three years, there has been a dramatic growth in the private insurance market for long term care policies. The number of insurance companies offering such coverage has grown from about 20 in 1983 to over 70 today, and the number of individuals covered by these policies has increased from 100,000 to nearly half a million.

00:18:37.140 - 00:18:53.920

The only way many Americans can afford nursing home care is by impoverishing themselves. Many must turn over most, if not all of their monthly income to the nursing home before Medicaid will pay. Barbara Mantel A. Is the director of the Division of Medical Assistance for the State of North Carolina.

00:18:54.150 - 00:19:13.010

She explained to Senator Jim Sasser of Tennessee how her state handles Medicaid payments. Let me tell you, there's a great deal of cost sharing in Medicaid. A person in a nursing home who Medicaid is helping is only being subsidized by Medicaid. We're not paying the whole bill.

00:19:13.010 - 00:19:42.160

In most cases, Medicaid, Medicaid is not paying the whole bill now. In fact, in the test cases and the testimony I submitted in North Carolina, 90% contribute some part of their monthly income to the nursing home bill, thus reducing our outlays by about 22%. So this means the poorest of the poor contribute all but $25 of any monthly income they have.

00:19:42.740 - 00:20:13.060

This is after they've exhausted their resources. All of their monthly income, except for $25 goes to the nursing home before Medicaid pays. When they're receiving care in the home, not only must they exhaust their resources to that same level, but their monthly income in excess of one half the poverty level all that so called excess income has to be spent on their health care before we will pick up any part of the bill.

00:20:13.440 - 00:20:30.770

So the poor are cost sharing at a rate which, if it were passed on to middle income pairs, we would all scream their their cost sharing quite heavily under Medicaid. The prospect of having to give up everything you worked for just to receive medical care is frightening for most people.

00:20:31.290 - 00:21:03.720

That's why several alternatives are being discussed. Right now, many private healthcare policies are both expensive and limited in their benefits, so one idea is for the government to provide long term benefits only after a long deductible period, Dr Rivlin explained. A more drastic approach might be to have the government agree to start the long term care benefits only after a long deductible period, say, two years.

00:21:04.340 - 00:21:29.960

And that would be saying to the public, You're on your own for two years. If you want to stay off Medicaid, you're going to have to buy private insurance. And that puts a lot of faith on the private insurance industry to come up with products to, uh, fill that gap, protect people for the very considerable costs of having to pay for two years of long term care if they need it.

00:21:30.540 - 00:21:55.910

And, uh, that would take some encouragement also by the federal government to, uh, get that market opening up. Uh, there would still be people who couldn't afford that, and one would have to have some provisions for them under the residual Medicaid program. On average, states spent almost half their total Medicaid budgets on long term care for just 7% of the recipients.

00:21:56.440 - 00:22:13.860

With the rising cost of long term care, fewer tax dollars are available and there are many, many other needy groups. More long term care seems inevitable. And while private insurance must play a role, it may not be enough. In the months ahead, debate over long term care will continue in Congress.

00:22:14.380 - 00:22:34.690

The solution may not be easy, and the decisions will be tough. But the issue of long term care is one that can't be ignored. When we return, we'll look at the Port of Jacksonville. Mhm, Willie Boy. I'm glad we're doing this thing together. It's because we share the same feelings about space technology.

00:22:34.690 - 00:22:46.260

That's right. And it's led to benefits for all of us to like this little gizmo. It's a medical system that's implanted. That means it releases medication automatically. Are you listening? And they believe it will be the way to treat diseases like diabetes in the years ahead.

00:22:46.470 - 00:23:08.310

And it came from space research, one of the down to earth benefits for everyone. Willie, me and you, Space technology. This is what's in it for you. Welcome back to the Port of Jacksonville has had a major impact on the economy of Northeast Florida. Call the distribution center of the Southeast.

00:23:08.350 - 00:23:30.180

Jack Sport is a major arrival point for automobiles, coffee, lumber and steel. Each ton of general cargo pumps $74 into the area's economy and bulk cargo adds another $11 a ton. Last year, the port added $1.3 billion to the economy of Northeast Florida and employed almost 20,000 people.

00:23:31.120 - 00:23:51.270

The Jacksonville Port Authority was created in 1963 and is responsible for operating the port. Blunt Island Terminal and Talleyrand docks are the main unloading facilities at Jack Sport. Blunt Island spreads out over more than 860 acres. Thousands of automobiles from Europe and Asia are unloaded here each day.

00:23:51.940 - 00:24:16.770

Roy Harper is the operational manager of the terminal. Yes, once the ship rise here we have two different entities on the ship side. We have an agent that is in charge of the entire cargo and vessel wants it ties up to the dock. He contracts for the stevedore and the stevedore contracts of labor from the Union and the Union are the folks that are doing the driving of the actual vehicles.

00:24:16.780 - 00:24:48.130

Once they're placed in the point of rest on the process of property, they become it becomes property of the processor then and he takes it from there. They employ quite a few, uh, of the general community to do this processing as far as putting the stripes in and all those options that I mentioned before all the vehicles arrive stripped down and must be fitted with necessary hardware before they're loaded onto highway carriers and shipped to automobile dealers, Roy explained how it's done.

00:24:48.140 - 00:25:12.760

We have three processing facilities on the terminal that install all the options, or, uh, some of the necessary items that are required within the car, such as the mirror striping, uh, special seats, special air conditioning, special radios, those type of things they install those here, the cars that you're seeing coming off coming off the ship here are stripped down version of cars.

00:25:12.840 - 00:25:36.280

We do handle other commodities besides cars on the island, but our biggest biggest commodity is cars. We, uh, last year attained a figure of around 579,000 automobiles, and I believe the prediction is greater this year to exceed 600,000 more automobiles passed through Jack Sport than any other port in the Southeast.

00:25:36.310 - 00:25:57.400

Paul, to Mariano, is the Jacksonville port director. We are the leading port in the United States for automobiles. There's really no close challenger. Uh, we're growing really growing tremendously in virtually every other mod, uh, of cargo containers are growing break bulk meaning politicized cargo. Uh, bundled.

00:25:57.410 - 00:26:21.100

Cargo strapped cargo such as lumber steel is growing. Bulk cargo is growing. We really don't see any limitations on how much cargo we can do because of our logistical relationship here to the continental United States and the South Atlantic. In addition to automobiles, the container industry also makes up a major chunk of jack sports business.

00:26:21.550 - 00:26:44.850

The container industry today is largely dependent upon something we refer to as intermodal is, um intermodal is, um, is a buzzword, which really means the smooth transition of a common object. Let's call it the container from one mode of transportation to another, from truck to rail to ship and, in some cases, to airplane.

00:26:45.540 - 00:27:06.270

The container is constant, except in the case of the airplane, I might add, they have their own type of container. But if you were to stick to surface transportation as a function of water transportation and how you move the container from the water to its ultimate destination, you would have to talk about something we refer to as intermodal list.

00:27:06.940 - 00:27:36.340

The port has continued to grow over the years, and with that growth has come the need to expand. Paul described how the federal government has helped the port and expanding and at the same time investing in its future. One is in the beginning and the funding this year of the Mill Cove project here in Jacksonville, which is going to widen the throat of that waterway and and assisting the flushing of what had been a naturally deep recreational bay for recreational boaters.

00:27:36.590 - 00:27:57.210

Secondly, we've received the funding for the removal of obstructions to navigation on our blunt island in the form of rocks that were built years and years ago for navigational purposes and tidal flushing purposes, which now actually are in the way of ocean shipping. As we try to get into what we call our West Channel that was funded by the federal government.

00:27:57.220 - 00:28:16.440

And we're delighted to be able to say that that obstruction and navigation has been removed opening up our entire West Channel, and thirdly, we have received word in the last few weeks that we will receive the first of we hope additional funds for the construction of our third Blunt Island.

00:28:16.450 - 00:28:36.460

Uh, excuse me. Our second Blunt Island bridge with 50,000 miles of railroad track to airports and more than 100 trucking lines serving Jack Sport, you quickly see why it's become the distribution center of the Southeast. The Port Authority estimates that tonnage handled by the port more than tripled by the end of the century.

00:28:36.940 - 00:29:03.770

Yes, Jacksonville port has a bright future and will remain a major center for international trade. Well, that's all we have time for today. I hope you'll join me again next time for another edition of the Lawton Child's Update. Oh, mhm. Okay. Uh huh. Mhm. Okay. Yeah.

00:29:05.740 - 00:30:17.690

Mhm. Yeah. Uh huh. Mhm. Yeah, Yeah. 50. Yeah! Oh, Mhm, Yeah, Yeah! Mhm! You mhm the law and chows update takes a look at a growing industry in Florida alligator farming. And we'll visit Gatorland Zoo. A landmark tourist attraction and working alligator farm. I'm Senator Lawton Child's.

00:30:17.700 - 00:30:19.260

I hope you'll join me