The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-29
HEALTH INSURANCE
 IS GREAT SOCIAL
 IDEA, SAYS FISHER

 which equals the power of health in surance toward social regeneration"
 With this declaration Professor Irving Fisher of Yale concluded his presidential address in opening the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Amer ican Association for Labor Legisla- ton at Hotel Deshler Wednesday night.
 This meeting was a joint meeting of the American Economic Associa- ton, The American Sociological So- cety, The American Statistical Asso- citation and the American Association for Labor Legislation. It was given over entirely to the addresses of President Thomas N. Garter, Presi- dent George E. Vincent, President Charles P. Neill, and President Irv- ing Fisher.
 MT. Fisher struck the keynote of the nationwide campaign now un- der way for compulsory health insur- ance. His subject was "The Need for Health Insurance" MT. Fisher has become widely known for his active interest in the movement toward con- servation of public health. ''At present" said MT. Fisher, ''the United States has the unenviable dis tinction of being the only great in- dustria1 nation without compulsory Health Insurance. For a generation the enlightened nations of Europe have one after another discussed the idea and followed discussion by adop- ton. It has constituted an import ant part of the policy and career of some of Europe's greatest statesmen, including Bismark and Lloyd George.''
 Millions Die Needlessly.
 Referring to his Is years of study on the preventability of sickness, MT. Fisher said: At least AZ per cent. of the deaths now occurring in the United States are unnecessary, or over 63O,OOO lives could be saved an- nually by applying existing and known methods of life saving which would add at least 15 years to the average duration of human life. I am convinced that the great virtue of Health Insurance, for decades, per haps flor centuries to come, will lie in the prevention of illness" And hes added:
 k 'There are special reasons to hope that Health Insurance may win favor rapidly The war has made labor
 
 will not only make for high wages but also for the conservation of labor. I believe it to be correct economic portent that the world is about to enter upon a period of life conserva- tion. The war has for a time with drawn much of the worlds labor sup ply and destroyed and maimed a large part of that which it has with drawn. The world will seek the greatest possible salvage out of the wreck"
 The especial value of Health In- surance to the poor was emphasized by MT. Fisher. He said: 'The curi- ous and Melancholy fact is that the poor in this country have received, as yet, very little benefit from the ap- plication 'of the insurance principle outside of workmen's compensation. Yet it is the poor whose need of Health Insurance is greatest. The sickness rate prevailing among the poor is from two to three times that prevailing among the well-to-do. Any loss from sickness is a far more vital matter to them than to the rich. The worker who loses his health loses his chief asset
 Present insurance facilities in the United States are and, so far as we can see, always will be hopelessly inadequate.
 ''It is also true that millions of American workmen cannot at p1es- ent avail themselves of necessary medical, surgical and nursing -aid.'
 Insurance Must Be Compulsory.
 Health Insurance was compared by MT. Fisher, to elementary education, and like education, must be univer- sal; and to be universal, it must be compulsory. "In Health Insurance" he said. Gas in education, we are deal ing not with obligatory burdens but with obligatory benefits. It is by the compelling hand of the law that so- ciety secures liberation from the evils of crime, vice, ignorance, acci- dents, unemployment, invalidity and disease.'' e|
 Of even greater importance than Identification for losses due to sick ness, in the opinion of MT. Fisher is preventing of sickness. He said: Health Insurance will afford a very powerful and pervasive stimulus to employers, employees and public men to take fuller and speedier advantage of possible health-giving devices ''
  workmen's compensation has stimu- lated employers to install safety de- vices, so Health Insurance would stim mulate them to supply better Nsani- tation, ventilation and lighting, more physiological hours of labor, one days rest in seven, and fuller con- sideration for the special need of em- ployed women and children.
 Again, under compulsory Health Insurance both employer and em- ployee will cooperate with the gen. eral public in securing better public water supply, better sewage systems, better milk, meat-and-food laws, bet ter school hygiene, more playgrounds and parks and proper regulation of liquor and other destroying busines- ses.''
 And according to MT. Fisher, two additional contributions to social well fare may be achieved through Health Insurance-helping to reduce poverty and helping to forward industrial peace.