Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-03-11
OUR COUNTY HOsPTrAL.
WHAT IT COSTS TO KEEP PATIENTS.

WHAT IT COSTS TO KEEP PATIENTS.
\ Spicy Debate ON the Subject in the State
Senate.
In the state Senate the other day, pend
ing the consideration of the bill to organ
ize the state hospital for the insane at
Warren, and a proposed amendment re-
ducing the charges of keeping the inmates
sent there by counties from 81 so to s2 per
week, Mr.. Kaufman, from this county, ob-
jected to the reduction, because if it was
made the counties like Lancaster, which kept
their own insane. would have to make up
the deficit for the state institutions caused
by the difference between the actual costs
OF theo maintenance and the amounts
contributed by the counties which did not
keep them but ssnt their insane to state
hospitals.
Mr.. Kaufman said: should be very
glad indeed to vote for this amendment ii
I thought the insane could be kept ut any
thing like two dollars a week, but l think
the experience of the members Of this
body is entirely of different character.
by law, all the other institutions of the
state arc allowed three dollars a week.
This is a reduction now of half a dollar
which Is about sixteen per cent but am
we'll satisfied in my own mind, and be
licve the experience every year has been
that the state of Pennsylvania pays large
amounts 0; money for the purpose of max
ing up the deficit between the receipt of
three dollars from the county institution
and the amount that the maintenance Of
these persons actually costs. Now,
if We reduce this still further to
the sum Of two dollars a week
the result will 10 as the senator from
Allegheny [Mr. Newmyer] has said,
that counties who have taken care of their
own poor, will. not only have to support
their poor AS chey are now doing and as
my county does, but will be compelled to
pay their proportion in support of the poor
from those counties who pay less than the
sum necessary to maintain them. We sup
port our own poor, We support them at
less cost than three dollars u week, l be-
lieve at q little less than two dollars q
week, and see no reason because we do
that We should help to support the poor of
other counties of the cOmmOnwealth-the
insane mean, of course. So far as send
ing the insane persons to these asylums of
the state is concerned, it is all very well as
long as there is any hope of effecting a
cure, but after persons are hopelessly in
sane and there is no more possibility of
curing them, all they require is to he prop
erly clothed and fed, and properly cared
for. There is no particular benefit to be
derived from keeping Il person at an insane
asylum when there is no possibility or
probability of effecting any cure or benefit
in any way. take it, in the cases of per-
sons of that kind, where they have insti-
tutiOns such as We have in Lancaster
county, they are just as comfortable and
just as we'll cared for as they will be at
this hospital or any other hospital see
no reason why we should be taxed to pay
for the maintenance of persons that will
be sent to these hospitals from other coun
ties in the commonwealth. If they can
show by actual experiment., that two dol
lars week is sufficient amount. Ishould
he only too glad to reduce the charges to
that figure.
Mr.. Hall. The senator from Lancaster
has proved to US that the cost of keeping
the insane paupers ought not to- exceed
two dollars a week, because he tells us
that their experience in Lancaster county
shows they can be kept for less than that
sum. think it may be fairly inferred
from that fact that the reason why the
people of Lancaster county keep their in
sane poor III their own almshouse is be-
cause the public rate at the state asylums
is more.
Mr.. Kaufman. That is the reason, cx-
actly.
Mr.. Hall. If the public rate in the in
sane asylums of the state were reduced to
two dollars there would be no object in
the people Of Lancaster county keeping
their insane at home. They will then be
able to avail themselves Of the superior
advantages which the state insane alylums
afford without any increased expense to
them, and in that case they will share
equally i'll the benefits of the states
bounty without being unduly taxed to
support the poor Of other counties.
Mr.. Kaufman. We are proud to be able
to say that the poor arc kept as we'll in the
hospital at Lancaster as they will be i'll
Warren. We have a building, not so
grand as Warren. but equally as comfort
able.
Mr.. HALL. Then they are more fortu-
nate than any other section Of the state.
In the section of tho state for which this
hospital is intended to provide there is no
such almshouse as the gentleman says they
can boast of in Lancaster. He has shown
us the insane poor can be kept for two dol
lars, and therefore two dollars is enough
to put in this bill. There is one other
item which ought to be considered in this
case, namely. that tho amount 0: expense
to the state depends largely on the lumber
Of inmates ir the hospital.
Mr.. Mylin. Will the senator allow mo
to ask him 4 question.
Mr.. Hall. Certainly.
Mr. Mylin. Ii the inmates Of the state
hospitals can be kept for two dollars, why
is it that they are constantly applying
to the Legislature for appropriations to
cover up deficits?
Mr.. Hall. This is just one of the things
have not been able to find out. The re-
port made to the state two years ago by
Dixmont hospital shows that the earn
thousand of all expenses, and yet they
came here and asked for an appropriation
of sixty thousand dollars. The fact re
mains, however, as proved by the senator
from Lancaster Mr.. Kauffman], that they
can be kept for two dollars. What was
proceeding to say is this: Tho cost de-
pends largely on the number of inmates
in any hospital. We Have in Warren a
building that cost the state about mil
lion of dollars, with capacity for seven
or eight hundred inmates. There are now
but thirty inmates, or something like that
number. OF course, if there was
not one inmate there would be
a large expense to the state,
and with thirty the expenses will be large.