The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-12-04
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

! by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES -
TN this period of the second breath of the New
l. Deal much attention is being given pro-
posaIs for social insurance better housing the
development of public health agencies, and the
like 1t is important that perhaps the most i'm
portant element in the whole program OF sound
er health for the American people-Socialized
Medicine-should not be overlooked.
4he most vital item in any system of social
insurance is the health of the public. An ailing
under-fed population is no foundation upon
which to build the new industrial era, to which
purpose our President has dedicated an ad-
ministration- The efficiency of an industrial or
ganization is no greater than the health of its
workers. The hundreds of millions of dollars
lost to national productivity by reason of disease,
and the hundreds of thousands of days lost by
confinement in bed as result of illness are no
mean items in the cost of medical care to the
community and in industrial inefficiency to
business
Among 100000 industrial workers examined
by Life Extension Institute about 40 per cent
showed dental defects; As per cent exhibited
variety of nose and throat diseases; 25 per cent
had eye defects and more than 20 per cent were
affected by digestive disorders.
About l per cent of the population on any
average day are treated for venereal diseases
which could hare been avoided by prophylactics
tuberculosis, Orug-dQQlCIlOn ana QiapeLeS To-
gether affect in a single day more than 100000
persons. Malaria, although preventable, still is
widely prevalent in the South, and smallpox,
also preventable, boasts more than 10000 cases
year. All these facts indicate the enormous
development of preventive medicine still neces-
sary and the broader medical service and larger
number of physicians yet to be required for it.
TURNING to therapeutics we note equally
disturbing conditions. In 1927 prosperity
days. 100000 American families or about 81
per cent of the total had incomes of less than
$1,000 About 100000 families, some AZ per
cent of the total, received less than $500. They
received in the pre-depression years an annual
average of 1882 visits per 1000 persons from
physicians, or roughly two calls person a year.
At the other extreme are the 90 per cent of
all families at the top, namely those that had
incomes in 1929 Of $4,000 or over. These per-
sons received an annual average of 4734 visits
per 1000 persons, or an average of Az visits each
a year.
According to standards of good medical serv-
ice any average group of 1000 persons should
have on the average of $3.50 calls from or to
physician during the year. If all the population
were to receive adequate hospital care when
necessary we should discover a dearth Of hos
pital beds. Standards of good medical re-
quire 1853 hospital beds per 100000 persons in
this country. This would mean that l 900
beds ought to exist. Actually there are less than
a million beds, a shortage of 100000 beds.
Only Is per cent of our population receive
any sort of dental treatment during the year
total of about 48 per cent of the people in the
lowest income class have no medical, dental or
eye care whatsoever during the year, although
IA per cent of the people in the top income class
who could get all necessary treatment appeared
to be free from Illness 1t is very obvious then
that the American public receive inadequate
medical care.
T Under the present system of private medical
~ practice on the single-fee- for service basis,
it is thus evident the income of the masses is
far too low to meet the cost of proper medical
care.
Modern medical diagnosis and treatment in
volve expensive specialists examinations and
costly X-ray and laboratory tests are beyond the
means Of the individual patient in the over
whelming portion of the American public. Pri-
vate competitive medical practice is a social
failure
Public health is public matter The peo-
pies health, including the care and cure of
disease and injury, is fundamentally a social
interest and obligation.
1t is essentially social function, and it
should no longer be left to the economic and
medical uncertainties of the present private or
institutional practice. Public health must be
taken care of in exactly the same manner in
which the state has taken care of its public edu-
cation system Social need-not charity-must
oe the underlying principle of proper system
of medical cure and practice.
There is only one real and logical remedy for
the inadequate and costly care of the health and
sickness of the American people. That remedy
is socalized medicine, or public medicine. Pub
lie health and care of the sick should have full
governmental sanction and subsidy, side by side
with education, or policing or fire fighting or
courts or any other functions Of the state The
interest of the patient and doctor, of the public
and the profession must be made identical.
This can be accomplished only by purging
their relationship of any immediate economic
obstacles or considerations and of any Interior
financial motivations of personal nature The
profit motive and business technc of medicine
must be abolished. Socialized medicine implies
that the public has right to adequate medical
care guaranteed by society through the state
and that TIE extensively trained doctors have
right to work and be paid for their services in
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