The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-14
INSURANCE FEES.
A Word to The Doctors of North Car
DINA by a Doctor.

To the Editor: The circular letters,
recently sent out to their local exam
iners by several of the larger life in
surance companies, announcing re-
duction of the fee for medical eX-
animation from the five dollars here
tofore paid to three dollars, presents
to us their local examiners, not alone
a question of dollars and cents but
is a denial of our formerly appraised
medical worth, and pre-SuppoSes,
with an air of dictation. our ready
acquiescence in their differentiation
of our professional services. The fee
of five dollars, and nothing less, has
been regarded by the local examiner
as adequate for his work and against
those companies who yet hold US en-
titled to that fee | have no word of
complaint. In this article / am not
chiefly concerned with the dividends
paid or surplus accumulated, nor DC
| wish to be understood as joining
in the recent controversies about
them, or as yielding an assent to the
exploitatiOns at this time being made
of their methods. That each comDa-
ny has the specific right to contract
with an examiner for any sum mu-
tually agreed upon, or that either has
the right to terminate it in accord
ance with its provisions no one viii
deny. Whether it be good finance to
get our services for less tnan they
are worth l shall not stop to argue;
to an honest service they are entitled
if we accept their appointments, and
our judgments should be as well and
carefully weighed and our opinions
as firmly considered and fearlessly eX-
pressed in an examination for which
we receive three as in one for which
we get five dollars. So that the ques-
ton of graded fees is not at all per-
tinent In all cases, if we give an
opinion we must give our best; if we
make an examination we must make
it thorough and painstaking; the
same time and experience and skill
and equipment must be available and
used. The honest examiner knows
no difference between a one and
ten thousand dollar application, and
for the same work should have the
same price. This much being as
sumedly correct the consideration or
the proposed reduction resolves itself
into two questions, which must be
asked and answered.
First, can the companies afford to
pay five dollars for each and every
examination, and is the examiner s
opinion worth that to them? and
Second, can the local examiner af-
ford to do the work and accept the
responsibility for a less amount?
To the first question the answer
must be yes; we need no evidence to
prove our answer to this issue, but
the evidence of experience and their
own published reports; the evidence
of enormous profits and huge sur
pluses; the evidence Of generous sala-
ries paid, with yet increased earnings
and heavy credit balances; the evil
denoe Of nearly thirty per cent reduc-
ton in their mortality tables, based
upon the actuarial reports of Nthe
Seventeen Offices; the admitted evil
dence that this reduction is due to
our own increased accuracy in dis
elimination, our improved regulations
and advice in sanitation, and our
larger skill in combating disease,
| thus insuring longer life for those
insured and securing a greater safety
for the companies against the unin-
sur9ble. The admitted evidence that
| our services protect the companies
f, from impOstures and frauds, and