Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-07-04
Criticises Medical Fees

Criticises Medical Fees
The Kennebec Journal:
A portion of d quotation on your
editorial page of a recent issue con-
corning medical men and the medical
profession generally interested me.
Speaking of the family physician the
quotation, taken from a report of the
Rockefeller Foundation was, HE will
survive only if he can win confidence
| and make living"
Surely that writer was not refer
ring to this part Of the country re-
garding making living, for if any
body is making living the last few
years it is the family physician; and
the writer who puts that query sure
ly has had no sickness in his family
| the last few years or been responsible
for much in the way of doctors bills.
l believe l am expressing the
| opinion of the majority Of people
when l say that medical fees for
| minor operations and general prac-
tice today are outrageously high and
beyond the ability of the ordinary
people to pay; and that the ordi-
narily successful family doctor is not
only making living, but almost
| coming money IL he receives all he
asks for.
Anything more than a weeks ILL
| ness quickly runs into three figures,
and the very common everyday oper-
GRAFTON for appendicitis, with it's at
tendant convalescence of two to four
weeks, one is, and I do not hesitate
to say it, mulcted in the sum of a
hundred and fifty to three hundred
dollars. Now where do our doctors
think the average man can pay any
| thing like these fees for this and other
operations that may be necessary in
| any family at almost any time?
Many families, whose members do
not enjoy robust health, are almost
in continual state of embarrass-
| ment, and hardships necessitated by
these unnecessarily heavy fees, and
| have to forego almost the necessities
of life in their efforts to pay them
Now why should this be and why
should people submit to it? A ply
| sician is entitled to as good a living
as any of us if he is the right man.
but just because his ability lies in
| the direction of helping or healing
our physical sufferings is no reason
| whatever why he should rob us. He
can get good living without that
and be the better man for it. An
| average, successful doctor today can
| easily take from 800 to 500 dollars
| per week from his local community,
and no ordinary man has any right
to that much. He cannot earn it.
In the old days, which now seem
past, we looked on the family doctor
| as our friend. advisor and counsellor
| and he was in most cases worthy of
| that honor, but nowadays he in many
! -, t., = L.
! for the money there is in it. Young
medical men will not locate in these
days in the country. causing at times
! anxiety and hardship to those living
| there. No money in it to them. They
wish to practise in the cities, where
| fees are high, many imaginery all
ments, minor operations, etc. They
are among the few who still insist
on war time fees and more.
The effect of all this is disastrous
| in many ways; many people of poor
or moderate means hesitate to call a
! doctor. even when necessary, ecause
they dread the expense, and there is
little doubt that many lives have been
lost in consequence. The expense in
cident to childbirth, If put aside until
| the youngster was, say SO, would
keep him in comfort ever after.
| Young people cannot afford these
| fees-too much of a luXury-they
| forego (which practice never yet
built up a great and prosperous
country.
Here is a suggestion for Govern
mental Old Age pensions. Make a
| law compelling parents to put aside
or save say zoo dollars at the birth
| of their child, the Government pay
ing the attending physician nomi-
nal fee or let him give his services
on these occasions for the future
prosperity of his country. This zoo
dollars at compound interest will in
| so years amount to a large sum of
money. Should the parents survive
the child, they can thank a thought
| full Government for its wisdom and
receive a more or less considerable
sum of money.
Results? Poverty among the aged
| would then be unknown: we should
have no mothers or fathers in law
to keep, taxes might drop almost out
of sight; in fact the millennium
would be with us; it would be a good
| swap for the poor and taxes, which
are said to be always with us.
What is happening today in many
of the rural sections? An old couple
are finishing out their useful and
honorable lives on the old, now al
| most worthless farm; their boys and
girls having left years before for the
! city; the old people have managed by
| the hardest kind of toll and self
denial to accumulate a few hundred
dollars, which, by the most rigid
economy will have to see them
! through. One of them takes sick,
about time anyway. Simply decay
of nature. A doctor is called in, finds
| no one to care for the patient, orders
nurse; patient stays on few
| weeks and passes away. Now, by the
time the doctor is paid, the nurse is
| paid and the undertaken the same,
| that few hundred dollars is gone, and
| the poor old broken hearted derelict
man or woman-alone, and practi-
cally penniless, fingers on until a
| merciful Providence takes them, too.
| Is this fitting end for lives of devo-
ton, honest labor, unselfish patriot
| ism? Is ours highly civilized, pro-
| sressive, Christian. prosperous land
The medical profession is about the
| only calling in which a man does not
suffer for his mistakes, but draws his
| pay from the relatives just the same !;
and since even doctors are human,
mistakes sometimes do occur.
If he will only moderate his fees,
many of us would have the old time
respect and confidence in both he
| and his profession, and he can still
make a better living than most of us
| of equal knowledge and ability, al
| though perhaps in less lucrative
line. Faithfully,
CHARLES ELVIN
IS Winthrop June IS. 1925.