The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-10-06
INADEQUATE MEDICAL CARE FOR LOW
INCOME GROUPS

INADEQUATE MEDICAL CARE FOR LOW
INCOME GROUPS
LOMER S. CUMMINGS, Attorney General OF
l the United States, announces that during
October the Department of Justice will present
to the grand jury of the District of Columbia the
Departments case against the Medical Society
of the District of Columbia and the American
Medical Association charging unlawful restraint of
trade in reported activities against the Group
Health Association, Inc, composed of number of
hundred Government employees in the nations
capital.
In connection with the restraint of trade COM
the Justice Department alleges that efforts were
made to coerce and boycott physicians carried to
the extent of closing the doors of hospitals to
physicians of approved professional qualifications
because they were in the service of the Group
Health Association.
Regardless of the merits or demerits of the
charges filed by the Department of Justice, the
dire need of loW-income groups for more adequate
medical care is a fact disputed by no informed per-
son. 1t - AFi~~
+ The truth regarding these depressed areas Of
our population clearly and succinctly set forth
by Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold
in his original statement that the Department of
Justice had referred the charges Of unlawful re-
straint Of trade and other illegal activities to the
grand jury of the District of Columbia. Here is
the way Mr.. Arnold put the case:
Recent studies by Government technicians
have brought out the fact that the forty million
persons in the United States in families with an
nual income of less than $500 cannot pay for medi-
cal care, and in many cases do not receive it when
they are in need of it.
"For instance, at least half the present toll of
mothers deaths in child bearing, and of infants
in the first month of life, are preventabe with
proper prenatal care and medical services in de-
livery. Half the babies born annually in this
country are in families with less than $1,000 in
come year. 1t is therefore significant that in
fant mortality is five times higher in families with
less than $500 year than it is in families with
$4,000 or more year.
"These facts are cited because experience has
demonstrated the definite possibility of reducing
infant mortality and of danger to mothers by
proper care. The enormous difference in the rec
ords of low-ncome families is prima facie evidence
that the medical profession as it is organized
is not providing them with adequate care
acute illness of all kinds increases one
goes down the income scale 1t is AZ per cent more
prevalent in families on relief than in those with
5000 or more annual income Chronic illnesses
are 81 per cent more prevalent in relief families
non-relief families of less than 81 900 income have
twice the illness disability of families with more
than $1,000.
"In any one year, 10 per cent of the families
bear Al per cent of the costs of illness Another
80 per cent of the families bear II per cent of the
costs, while the remaining SO per cent of the fam-
lies bear only 18 per cent of the costs
1t should be remembered that these low-income
groups are not the medically INDECENT who have
access to free clinics provided by charity organza-
tions. They are as Mr. Arnold explains those
with income enough to pay for some medical SER
vice." but they "ether cannot avail themselves
of these free facilities or, because Of self-respect
they do not desire to do so. Such persons expert
ence no difficulty when their medical needs are
slight; but when serious illness strikes, several
members of the family require attention within a
short time, the financial burden is accepted"
It is to be hoped that the various standard
medical associations and societies and those pro