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nursery near Chester produced 14.6 million loblolly seedling; and the remaining 5,923,000 were obtained from the North Carolina Forest Service (5.5), the Bowaters Company nursery in Tennessee, TVA, the Chesapeake Corporation seed orchard, and private nurseries.
The leading tree planting county was King and Queen with 3,416,378 to its credit. In second place again was Dinwiddie county with 2,964,200; followed y Buckingham with 2,813,600 (it had been first for the previous five consecutive years); Spotsylvania with 2,650,320; Brunswick, with 2,633,184; and Charlotte, with 2,628,850. Altogether there were 21 counties in Virginia in which more than one million trees were planted this year.
Virginia Forests, Inc., is proud of the part it has played in encouraging tree planting in the Old Dominion, and is continuing its efforts along this line. It has now concluded the fourth year of its second “Plant More Trees” program, whose goal is to encourage the planting of 500 million tree seedlings by 1976. This would match in 10 years the accomplishments of the first 50 years of Virginia’s reforestation history. The program is ahead of schedule, for the total of the past four years now stands at 214,334,000.
Medicare Changes
First of Year
Beginning in January, an older person who goes to the hospital under Medicare will be responsible for the first $60 of his hospital bill - now running about $750 for the average stay by a Medicare beneficiary. The present hospital deductible is $52 and will remain in effect for all Medicare hospital admissions during the remainder of the year. “The increase is mandatory under the law,” Robert M. Ball, Commissioner of Social Security, said. “It is a result of the long term upward trend in hospital costs, and in part, of course, the general inflation.”
“The Administration,” he said, “has been working hard to bring inflation under control and has also been working with the professional health community, health insurance organizations and others so that the Medicare program and general consumers, too, will get full value for each health care dollar spent.”
In announcing the new $60 deductible, Commissioner Bali explained that the law requires an annual review of hospital costs under Medicare and an adjustment of the portion of the bill for which a Medicare beneficiary is responsible, if these costs have risen substantially. The law provides a formula for determining the amount of any adjustment in the deductible amount.
Based on 67 million days of hospitalization covered by Medicare bills in 1969, the current average per diem rate for inpatient hospital services amounted to $55.70 compared to a rate of $37.94 for the base year
93.9%