Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29

may furnish q comprehensive medical history
OF the American people during the whole life
span, for analysis Of the reports will show the
days of illness Of all individuals in the family
group from the children at the time Of birth -
00-year old grandfathers and grandmother
The committee has made no studies of the
loss Of time to industry because the economic
phase of the loss to industry through illness is
not immediate factor in the cost of medical
care. DR.. w. s. Rankin of Duke Endowment
and member of the committee has estimated
that the decreased wage-earning capacity from
illness reaches 81 600 900 900 and that the loss
through postponable deaths makes the total
abolA S. 900 600 900.
Some idea Of the loss to industry, or to the
individuals in salary or wages where they are
locked" for illness, may be gained from the
following: The census figures show that there
are approximately $4,000, 900 wage earners In
the country. Several surveys show that on the
average wage Garner loses from to IL days
annually from illness, making total Of about
$50 900 900 working days lost. This represents
a tremendous loss Of money to somebody
whether TO the employer or to the emplcye or
both.
THERE seems to be a sufficient number Of
doctors and hospitals to take care of the
sick in this country without any material In
crease. There are enough beds in the hospitals
to give each man. woman and child his day In
the hospital. This is the average for the conn
try as whole. But In some sparsely settled
localities the hospitals are inaccessible to the
sick, bringing the average occupancy OF hos
pital beds to about SIS per cent. The question
of the distribution of facilities for hoSpitaliza-
ton and treatment by competent medical of
ficers enters largely into the availability Il
medical service.
1t is not the purpose of the Committee on
the Costs Of Medical Care to inquire into the
high cost but merely into the cost Of medical
care The rich often pay well for medical SerY-
ice, because their demands are exacting and
there is q compensatory force acting to balance
the great amount of work which must be done
by physicians for those who cannot or win not
pay for the medical services they must have or
which they demand for their families This Is
responsible for the sliding scale for the cost u
the same medical service, which may vary from
SIS to $4,000, according to the wealth Of the
individual.
1t is this uneven cost of medical care to the
individual in the varying income classes, to-
gether with the free service which tradition
has always demanded of the physician and
which the physician has given so gladly, that
especially complexities the physicians problems.
There is no other profession or business from
which the individual could demand service
without expectation of paying a standardized
price for that service. The more than 100
members Of the Los Angeles County Medical
Association who are on the attending STAFF OF
the county hospital for INDECENT, sick and In
jured give annually professional services which
have a money value of more than $500, 900.
The lawyer, the grocer the butcher, the
clothier or the street railway operator could
not exist If required to render so much charity
service. Nor would they permit such uneven
organization Of prices in their various BUSH
nesses. This Is interesting in view of the fact
that the physicians is the only professional re-
lationship into which the factors of life and
death enter.
An arresting fact brought out by Of the
studies Of the committee that the average
salary for a trained physician in rural COM
munity, which in general is typical Of the whole
Middle Western part Of the United States, b