Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-11-12
MEDICAL SOCIETY
DUE TO OFFER AID
TO SEM|-|ND|GENT
Battle Lines for Fiqht on
Group Health ASSocia-
ton Drawn.
TWO DELEGATES REPORT
ON TRIP TO CHICAGO
Lawyers to Be Named to "Sit In"
at Conference of District
Officials.

alton, Inc. the District of Columbia
Medical Society in a closed meeting
last night also moved forward in a
program to extend the facilities of its
Bureau of Medical and Dental Service
to the 'semi-indigent" of the city.
Two attorneys will be appointed by
DR.. Thomas E. Neil, president of the
society, to sit in" at a conference
soon between officials of the district
attorneys and corporation counsels
offices and the Federal Home Loan
Bank Board in a study of the exact
status of Group Health Association
under the laws of the District of Co.
lumbia.
Such an appointment followed an
invitation from District officials for
such legal counsel from the Medical
Society.
Meantime counsel for the Federal
Home Loan Bank Board, whose en-
ployes are members of Group Health
Association, continued preparation of
q brief defending the position of c.
H. A. The brief is to be considered
by Corporation Counsel Elwood H.
Seal and District Attorney Leslie H.
Garnet.
G. II. A. Is Attacked.
The G. H. A. was attacked by sew
eral speakers at the meeting last night,
principally DR.. William c. Woodward,
director of the Bureau of Legal Medi-
cine and Legislation of the American
Medical Association. DR.. Woodward
scored the G. H. A. as 'intolerable
and illegal" In recent report, pub
lished in the journal of the American
Medical Association, DR.. Woodward
bureau had issued comprehensive at
tack against the status of the G. H. A.
1t was this report that the local Med
ical Society recently ordered sent to
law enforcement officials here for their
information and guidance. The re-
port charged among other things that
G. H. A. is operating here illegally.
Further support from the American
Medical Association was pledged by
two delegates of the local society, who
reported last night the results of their
trip to headquarters of A. M. A. in
Chicago.
The delegates to Chicago were DR..
Arthur Hooe and DR.. F. X. McGovern.
In explaining their trip to Chicago
DR.. Neill in statement after the
meeting said
THE single man or woman who
makes $500 a year does not desire
to class himself as unable to pay
anything at all foH medical service,
but on the other hand he is unable
to pay the full costs of medical care
This man of intermediate income, the
man who needs only partial help, has
been the subject of long study by the
medical profession as whole. Sew
eral plans have been proposed in the
past. Some actual experimentation
has been conducted. Realizing the
necessity for solution of the problem,
the Medical Society appointed this
committee to lay the matter before
the American Medical Association.
The A. M A. agrees that every
effort should be made to work out a
practical, ethical solution of this part
help need.
The association called attention
10 the urgent need, however, of pre-
serving private initiative in the med
tcal profession as the very keystone
o. future progress and development.
1T was shown that almost without
exception the establishment of public
system of medical practice in foreign
countries has led to the immediate
and frequently disastrous decline OF
medicine.
THE association agrees to assist
the Medical Society in every possible
way in trying to devise a proper an
swer to this problem, and to support
the society in any solution finally
agreed upon"
The medical society will send two
other delegates to national con-
ference of medical secretaries and
editors in Chicago next week in con-
nection with session of trustees of
the American Medical Association.
They will lay the whole picture here
before the trustees themselves. The
delegates are to be DR.. G. B. Conklin
/. and DR.. Wallace M. Yater.
Resolution Adopted.
In its move to enlarge the oppor-
tunities furnished by its Medical
Dental Service Bureau, the society
adopted resolution to support the
"post-payment" system of medical
care for the "semi-indigent," the in
ference being that the society did not
support the e-payment" plan such
as is used by the Group Health As
ISOLATION. In adopting this the So
ciety went on record as opposing any
form of insurance handled by the
medical profession, or any form oi
prepayment, where the individual paid
in a fixed amount each month for
medical service. Without exception
it was pointed out to the society
in this part of the resolution Spon-
sored by DR.. Yater, this operates tc
a disadvantage of the public.
The resolution also called on mem.
bers of the medical profession fol
proper and complete utilization of the
facilities of the Medical Dental Serv'
ice Bureau and promised to consider
the feasibility of moving the bu-
reau from its present location at. III
I street NV. to a building adjacent
to the Medical Society headquarters
at TIA M street NV.
1t was further resolved by the so.
ciety to call on all MEMBER of the
medical profession to sign agreement.
to submit all cases involving semi.
INDECENT patients, or those who can