GOP Names 8 to Medicare Reform Panel

WASHINGTON — Amid signs of partisan troubles ahead, congressional Republican leaders appointed their eight members Monday to a bipartisan commission that is to suggest ways to buttress the long-term financial health of Medicare.

Five are members of Congress, one is a Medicare recipient who works for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and the other two work in the health industry.

President Clinton did not name his four members, and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) did not name his two, even though Monday was the deadline.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) appointed Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee; Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Commerce health panel; Rep. Greg Ganske (R-Iowa), a member of Bilirakis’ subcommittee; and Samuel H. Howard, chief executive of Phoenix Healthcare Corp. in Tennessee.

Lott named Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources public health subcommittee; Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Finance health subcommittee; Illene Gordon, who handles constituents’ Medicare cases in Lott’s Jackson, Miss., office; and Deborah Steelman, a Social Security advisor to President Bush.