This document is the first of three documents which present the Senate hearings on catastrophic health insurance called to determine how the private sector and the government can work together to lend support to the elderly and their families when they are threatened by catastrophic illness and to examine the issue of coverage of catastrophic illness expenses. This document contains the committee press release announcing the hearing. Testimony by Otis R. Bowen, Secretary of Health and Human Services is presented. Secretary Bowen's testimony and his prepared statement discuss groups of people (elderly facing acute care expenses, elderly facing long-term care expenses, and the 18% of the general population under age 65 with no health care coverage) affected by catastrophic illnesses, the costs for which individuals under Medicare are not reimbursed, and catastrophic protection for the elderly and the general population including possible funding mechanisms in the public and private sectors. Prepared statements by Senators Lloyd Bentsen, George J. Mitchell, David Pryor, John D. Rockefeller IV, Bob Dole, John H. Chafee, John Heinz, and Dave Durenberger are included. A background paper by the Joint Committee on Taxation on catastrophic coverage proposals for the Medicare population is included. Statements by Edwin M. Cohn, National Affairs Chairman of the American College of Gastroenterology, and by the American Academy of Family Physicians are included. (ABL)