March 26, 1999
Web posted at: 5:19 p.m. EST (2219 GMT)

From Correspondent Kate Snow

(CNN) -- If you dial 911 on January 1, 2000, will emergency personnel be able to answer the call?

Whether it's emergency aid at the local level or financial aid from Washington, fixing the Y2K bug will not be easy or cheap.

The latest estimate for repairing the federal government's mission-critical systems is more than $7 billion and rising. Congressman Steve Horn tracks federal agencies and say most are doing fine. He says the next step is testing the fixes.

"The FAA, a year ago, had a problem with radar. They thought they had it all fixed up in the laboratory, went back to the tower and it just didn't work."

Horn says another agency that's not doing so well is the Health Care Financing Administration. It runs Medicare and Medicaid, paying health care bills for 70 million Americans. To process Medicare claims the agency uses 78 different systems operated by 60 private insurance companies.

They all have to be ready for the year 2000.

"Our systems are going to be there to process and pay claims," says HCFA official Gary Christoph. "But we can't pay a claim unless we actually get one. If doctor's offices and hospitals can't send us a bill, we can't pay it."

Doctor's offices and hospitals could have trouble filing Medicare claims if their computers are not Y2K compliant. Without Medicare funds, many of them could be bankrupt within months.

"That's one place where contingency plans are absolutely vital," says Sen. Bob Bennett, chairman of the Year 2000 Committee. "We can't allow that part of the economy to be shut down because of the Y2K problem."

Another 160 federal programs are run by the states, including food stamps, welfare and unemployment insurance. Bennett says most states will be ready for 2000, but he expects some disruptions in service. Local governments, counties and cities may be in the worst shape of all.

"The problem is not in the large cities, generally," says John Koskinen, chairman of the Year 2000 Council. "It is in the smaller towns and cities where increasingly there seems to be an attitude of waiting to see what breaks and then fixing it after the fact."

Among other things, that means life-saving emergency services, including police, fire, and even 911, could be cut off from the communities that need them. Experts say that makes it more important than ever for neighbors to look out for each other as the year 2000 approaches.