The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-27
SIX 'MUSTS' FOR |
HEALTH SERVICE
ARE ANNOUNCED
Newly Appointed Surgeon
General Outlines
Policies.
Copyright, 1895, BY scienoe Service,

tCopyfight, 1886, by Sciencs Servtcef
WASHINGTON, March 27.-The
newly appointed Surgeon General
of the United States Public Health
Service, DR.. Thomas Parran Jr.,
has six ''musts" on his program for
securing better health throughout
the nation, based on his philosophy
that the greatest need for health
action is where the greatest saving
of life and suffering can be made"
They are:
/. To finish the job of wiping
out tuberculosis.
2. To wipe out that unmention-
able disease, syphilis, the end re-
suits of which crowd our jails,
our poorhouses and our insane asy-
lums."
3. To make available to people )
everywhere facilities for the prop
er diagnosis and treatment of cam
GER, which in Dr. Parran's opinion
would reduce by 20 per cent the
deaths from this disease.
4. To reduce the 'diSgracefully
high" death rates of mothers in
childbirth and of babies in their
first month of life.
5. To correct the conditions re-
sulting from improper diet
6. To restore crippled children to
lives of usefulness.
Opposes Health Insurance
Health insurance for the nation
as a whole does not meet with the
approval of Dr. Parran.
Il am convinced" he said re-
Gently, that an integrated plan of
public health, public medical serv-
ice and private practice is prefer
able to health insurance"
This statement was made on
methods of securing health for the
people of New York state while
DR.. Parran was Health Commits
Sloner of that state Under his di-
rection a system was built UP for
securing adequate medical treat
ment for all the people without re-
course to health insurance. Here
is how it works in the case of pneu-
monia, for example:
The practicing physician sees his
patients and takes care of them
himself. For those patients who
have only little money to spend on
medical care, the state health de-
partment makes free tests of the
patients serum to determine the
type of pneumonia he has. A new.
better, concentrated serum, costing
at retail from $40 to 500 per pa
t1ent. is supplied without charge by
the state department of health to
any physician requesting it. In adj
dition, the state health department.,
either through its own nursing serv-
ice or through other nursing agen-
cies, supplies nursing service free of
charge to all patients who are be-
ing treated in their own homes in
stead of in hospitals.
Would Extend System
DR.. Parran believes this system
should be extended to other kinds of
illness and to other states. It is not
state medicine, for the private ply
sician takes care of his own patients.
The states merely extend their
health service to include laboratory
tests, treatment materials and nurs-
ing service for those private patients
who can not bear the cost of these
in addition to the doctors fees.
Under such combination, the
doctor would retain everything now !.
satisfactory to himself and his pa
tent, DR.. Parran points out. "He
would be aided by public accessories
to practice and by compensation for
the present unbearable load of free
service; there would be no disrup-
ton in the physician-p patient rela-
tionship for the large sector Of 5
medical practice in the home and in
the doctors office
For those above the job insur-
ance level there would be no change
in present methods.
This plan would represent an
evolutionary process based upon
considerable experience 1t would
provide care freely for the catastro-
phic and expensive illness of the
low-wage group now poorly served
or served at the expense of the ply
sician. 1t would reduce present high
disease and death rates from i'm
portant preventable causes and adj
vance the public health tremen-
douSly."