Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-25
RESEARCH SEEKS
/ TO REDUCE HUGE,
COST OF ILLNESS
Findings viii Constitute
Priceless Present for
Americans in 1891.
ANNUAL EXPENSE PUT
ABOVE SIS, 600, 900, 900
Medical Care Committee Headed by
Wilbur Has Been Studying Cues
ton for Past Three Years.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Christmas, 1931-not this years Yule-
tide-will find the American people in
possession of a gift of truly vital i'm
port. 1t will concern the absolutely
most important thing every man,
woman and child in the Union have to
think about-their health 1t will take
the form Of chapter-and-verse story
OF the fabulous expense of getting or
keeping well and point the way to q
reduction Of that cost, now estimated
to take more than $4,000, O00, 900 out
OF the Nations pocket annually. The
gift which will be ready for presenta-
ton a year hence will be the results of
research carried on since 1927 by "the
Committee on the. Costs of Medical
Care" The chairman of the commit
tee is DR.. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secre-
tary OF the Interior, himself a physi-
clan. who has been giving all the time
he could spare from official duties to
research in collaboration
with Americas most distinguished med
ical men, sociologists and business
leaders.
Cost Of Ill Health Great.
The Committee on the Costs Of Med
ical Care believes, although exact fig-
ures are not easily to be estimated, that
the bill footed every year for i'll health
IN the United States exceeds $5,00O,-
100000 in direct expenditure If
the possibility of death and of perma-
nent Impairment be taken into ac-
count, 1t may well reach three times
that amount, or nearly what the United
states public debt ($16, ,000, O0O)
amounts to.
"Of recent years." said DR., Wilbur
to this writer, this great question of
medical care and of its costs has be-
come uppermoSt in the minds of thou
sands. 1t Is topic discussion at dinnsr
tables, in clubs, in offices, in our period
lcalS, IN casual conversations, and, of
course, in our homes. Scores of in
quiries have been made into various
aspects Of the problem, but the very
variety OF these inquiries has served In
degree to lessen their value. They
nave lacked synchronization and COM
mon purpose. They have not been
codihed, so that much which has re-
suited from them cannot be put to
effective use. Our committee seeks to
bring these results together, to add to
them, to draw from them their essen
tial values, so that the whole people
may be served.
OAP WINNING AAICC ICdTSs
The committee has been at work
Systematically for the past three years.
Its personnel and its purpose alike are
Nationwide. Our membership comes
from 10 cities in 16 States. Such wide
hung organizations as the American
Medical Association, the United States
Public Health Association, the American
Dental Association and the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Society are working in
close cooperation with us. We enjoy
the financial support of such great
pnllanthropic institutions as the Car
neg1e Corporation, the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Milbank Memorial
Fund, the Twentieth Century Fund, the
RoSenwald Foundation, the New York
Foundation, the Macy Fund and the
Russell Sage Foundation. When our
hve-year program has been completed
we shall have expended more than
81 100000 and had the direct or in
direct services of thousands of people.
We shall have given to the people of
the United States, and, indeed, to the
people of the civilized world, data that
may well be termed priceless"
DR.. Wilbur was asked what it is
exactly that his committee is trying to
ind out To answer this question he
said his colleagues have formulated the
following specific fields of inquiry:
Committees Goals Cited.
l. How can the medical facilities Of
the country be so distributed as to
bring adequate medical care within the
reach of all population groups?
2. How can well trained physicians
be assured of reasonable amount of
work and the necessary scientific equip
ment?
8. How can waste of time and money
in visiting several unassociated prac-
titioners for single ailment be reduced
and the patient be assured of competent
service?
4. How can the people be educated
to avoid the waste of money on in
ferior types of treatment and useless
medicine and to seek modern scientific
care?
S. How can the support of both prac-
titionerS and patients be secured to the
full utilization of the preventive pro-
cedure made available by medical
science?
6. How can the ordinary family pro-
vide against the uncertain financial bur-
den of sickness, which may be very
large in proportion to the family budget
and which is likely to be very uneven,
month by month and year by year?
DR.. Wilbur says it's a mistake for
people to think that the family doctor
or the consultant physician gets the
lions share of the money spent on ILL
ness. The committee finds that in many
instances the doctors bill is consid-
erably less than half the total cost.
Hospital care, nursing, dentistry, lab
oratory examination and medicines in
Volve heavy expense. The drug stores
reap very substantial share of 1t. In
one Midwest county surveyed the cost
OF medicine was over a third of the
total medical expense and 20 per cent
greater than the costs of physicians
service. The committee will make no
recommendations but hopes to stimu-
late public opinion. 1t is sure to be
stimulated to some extent in the direc-
ton of State health insurance.
(Copyright, 1930.)