Health programs at risk in wake of '84 election

President Ronald Reagan's reelection suggests that government will continue to promote policies that favor marketplace allocation of medical care resources and that it will continue to cut social welfare programs, particularly health programs for the elderly and the poor. Unlike previous administrations, which focused on controlling private and public health care costs, President Reagan has targeted Medicare and Medicaid expenditures--a policy which has caused substantial cost shifting to underwrite hospitals' uncompensated and undercompensated care. Physician payment policies likely will receive the greatest attention in spending reduction efforts. Congress, as it showed in the president's first term, can cut spending sharply. Its task, however, has been complicated by the president's campaign declaration that defense spending and Social Security benefits were off-limits. Expected to lead health care debate on Capitol Hill are Sens. Albert Gore, Jr., D-TN, and Phil Gramm, R-TX, and Rep. James Jones, D-OK.