This document presents Congressman Claude Pepper's report on the Medicare Home Care Benefit. Section I traces the history of home health care in the United States. Section II offers statistics and general background information about older Americans and Medicare. The beginning of the Medicare home care benefit and its present operation are discussed. Section III on the need for home care considers the issues of long-term care, cost containment, adjusting noninstitutional health care coverage, acute home care, long-term and chronic home care, and care for other populations. Section IV reviews the chronology of the attempted dismantling of the Medicare Home Health Benefit. Section V presents the results of the survey to all home health agencies in the United States. Section VI provides evidence of the cost effectiveness of home care. Section VII gives the results of a national opinion survey measuring public attitudes toward home care. Section VIII lists reasons in favor of home care, section IX contains a summary and conclusions, and section X gives 20 recommendations. The contention of the report is that the administrative restrictions placed on home care providers are punitive and designed to restrict the statutory Medicare benefit, to force providers out of business, or to force them to subsidize Medicare with revenues raised from private contributions of Medicare patients. The questionnaire to all home health agencies in the United States is appended. (NB)