Evening star., 1932-05-24
HOPES TO EQUAL|zE
COSTS Of SICKNESS
Medical Committee Favors
Insurance Program,
Wilbur Reveals.

Some form Of insurance to equallze
the financial burden Of sickness prob
ably will be proposed in the final report
of the Committee on the Costs OF
Medical Care, which will close its five
year study in November.
This was announced by Secretary OF
the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, chair
man Of the committee. at luncheon
given press representatives at the Wash
ington Hotel yesterday by DR.. Arthur
c. Christie, president Of the Medical
Society of the District Of Columbia.
The surveys of the committee show,
DR. Wilbur said, that the country's pres
ent expenditure for medical care, If
equally distributed, would provide am
pie service for the entire population.
Actually. however, the distribution of
costs is very uneven, many rural dis
tricts do not have any physicians. and
many competent physicians do not re-
Geive living wage. These conditions.
he said. largely are due to the changing
Pocial order and to enormous progress
IN medicine itself.
Oppose Bureaucracy.
While convinced Of the need OF a
more equable distribution of the medi-
cal burden, he said, the committee IS
opposed to any form of bureaucratic
control. and seeks some solution which
Gill continue the personal relations be-
tween physician and patient. 1t also
has been shown, he said, that health
insurance does not work out well in
the hands Of insurance companies. 1t
is probable, he indicated, that several
plans will be presented adapted for
rural, urban and metropolitan condi-
tions
The common belief thatthe poor re-
ceive necessary medical care, he said, is
not supported by the survey, in spite Of
the extensive free services of physi-
clans and the great expenditures for
free medical attention BY communities.
The group which suffers most is COM
posed of persons with small resources
who try desperately to maintain f1nan-
cial independence. Because they can
not afford to pay doctors or dentists,
they fail to consult them.
The unevennesS Of the distribution OF
costs Is shown by survey OF 1850
representative families. The figures
show that in families with incomes un
der $4,000 81 per cent spent less than
cent spent more than $3.50. The total
amount spent by the 81 per cent was
only slightly larger than the total spent
by the per cent.
The surveys show, he revealed. that
there are an average of 1.9 illnesses
per person per year among the repre-
sentative population groups, or more
than 200,00O000 cases of illness in the
United States every year Nearly l,500,-
600 persons are engaged in caring for
the Nations health. and there Is ap-
proximately $3,l25,o0o,oO0 invested in
hospitals
Scarce in Rural Areas.
The scarcity of doctors in the rural
districts, he said, was due essentially to
two Decentralization of the
young medical men after an expensive
education in city environment to sub
init to the hardships of rural prac-
tice. and development of medical
specialties
The specially" fad. he said. has
gone too far, so that it is fashionable
to have an ailment requiring the serv-
ices of specialist. Increasing use of
the laboratory and the hospital, he
said, has resulted in congregating doc
tors In places where these are available.
Bad as are conditions of the poor
family, he said, they are almost as bad
for many doctors. Some make very
great incomes. A great many, the sur
vey shows, make less than $1,000 a
year. Nearly so per cent of them re-
ceive less than an adequate compensa-
ton, with the result that they cannot
afford the time and energy to keep
abreast Of rapidly expanding science
They soon become antiquated in their
methods.
He announced that on May 81 an
advisory conference will be held in
Washington to obtain the opinion of
experts in the fields of medicine. den-
tistry, nursing. pharmacy, public health,
economics. sociology. social insurance
taxation and industry.