Describes factors that will lead to the collapse of Medicare and gives recommendations for preserving the program's future. Examines major problems of financing, Congress' penchant for expanding the scope of Medicare without committing additional revenues, and the growing elderly population. Recommends trashing the current generational transfer method of financing in favor of a system that requires each age cohort to insure itself against retirement medical expenses. Rettenmaier is research scientist, and Saving is director, at the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas AandM University. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR