Evening star., 1938-04-05

| ran said, "does not either prevent
disease or improve the quality OF care.
Its cost bears most heavily upon the
| The collection of premiums from any
except industrial workers is difficult,
if not impossible. Health insurance
! assumes the continued existence of the
current volume of illness as unavoid-
able and merely spreads its cost No.
| where does it provide for such ex-
penSive and long-continued treatment
as is needed in tuberculosis and men,
| tai diseases. Even venereal disease
| treatment is not included in most ex-
lstlng insurance schemes. It cannot
embrace the groups on relief, because
they have nothing to contribute. Pub
lie taxes must take the place of in
Surance contributions for them and
must supplement the contributions for
the entire low-income group, or else
another system must be worked out
for their care.
Disagrees With "Cure- Ais"
"For these reasons disagree with
those who look upon health insur-
ance as cure-all for our admitted
deficiencies in protecting the health
of the people. To my mind health
insurance In its most successful ex-
isting form will make very little i'm
pact upon the actual amount of dis
ease in our population. Whether We
have health insurance or not, I be-
lieve, makes very little difference to
our great basic problem of saving
life and reducing disability"
DR.. Peters took more tolerant view
Of health insurance schemes, al
though stressing that "contributory
insurance, especially when it is con-
fined to that class which is on the
precarious margin of economic COM
petence, cannot provide medical care
of the highest quality. 1t offers moth
ing to the truly INDECENT and is en-
tirely inapplicable to thinly populated
areas"
The Yale professor warned, however,
that some form of health insurance
is likely to be imposed upon U.s."
IF we are to have unemployment
Insurance." he said, there Is no rea-
son why unemployment through ILL.,
ness should not be compensated just
as much as unemployment arising
from faults in the economic structure.
For the relief of this purely economic
aspect OF i'll health insurance may be
a necessary and beneficial expedient
in which the interest of the physicians
is no greater than that of any other
body of citizens. In those countries
in which compulsory health insurance
has been introduced it has vindicated
itself, inasmuch as it has insured
wider distribution of existing medical
services to the class to which it ap-
plies, with more certain compensation
to physicians who practice under its
provisions. Nevertheless, it is not
panacea for the ills of the medical
system"
"40-Phobia" Condemned.
1ndustry's growing "40-phobia"-of
late reflected even in civil service re-
quirements-was condemned as con-
trary to facts before the meeting.
This fear of hiring men and women
who have passed their 40th birthdays
especially was scored in a report on
medical aspects of the aging process
by DR.. George M. Piersol and DR..
Edward L. Bortz of the University Of
Pennsylvania.
With more individuals attaining
the middle years of life," they said,
"the value Of their labor, ability and
contribution to society requires
broader recognition. While physical
maturity is more exuberantly evident
in the early years of adult life, emo
tional maturity and stability come
relatively later. An individual is at
his best when maturity of the phys
lcal, intellectual and emotional pat
terms have attained their full stature.
This is probably between the years of
40 and 60.
"A recent survey Of some Of the
country's leading industries indicates
that individuals over 40 are more
conscientious than those under 40.
that they are more open-minded to-
ward criticism, that they undertake
unpleasant tasks more willingly, and
that they bring in new ideas Of value.
The attributes credited to younp rnen