Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-09-11
6. H. A. Is Upheld
In Insurance Case
By Appeals Court
Group Health Declared
Not AmenobIe to Laws
Governing Risks

Another legal victory was chalked
up by the Group Health Association
Inc. today when the United States
Court of Appeals affirmed a District
Court ruling that the G. H. A. was
not engaged in the insurance bust
ness and therefore was not amenable
to any laws here relating to inSur-
ance companies.
The appellate court decision came
on an appeal by the District super
intendept of insurance who had
claimed the lower court erred in
holding G. H. A. was not engaged
IN the insurance business illegally.
Originally the appeal was filed
by the late J. Balch Moor. but upon
his death recently a substitute ap-
peal was noted by Albert F. Jordan,
present superintendent of insurance
Separate Legal Action.
Although the insurance case in
wolves Group Health Association
and is part of the general battle
over medicine which has been waged
in the courts, it is an action entirely
separate from the appeals recently
taken by the Department of Justice
from a decision by Justice James
M. Proctor, which had been a vic
tory for the forces of organized
medicine. Justice Proctor had sus-
tanned demurrer by organized
medicine to an indictment handed
down by Federal grand jury which
had charged four bodies of medical
men and 81 doctors with violation
of antitrust law. because of al
legged restraint of trade against
Group Health Association.
The Department of Justice pre-
viously had appealed from Justice
Proctor's decision to the Court OF
Appeals, and Saturday appealed
from the same decision direct to
the Supreme Court of the United
States. 1t asked for review by the
tribunal prior to a decision by the
appeals court decision.
Justice Sustained G. H. A.
The insurance case was based or
ruling July %. 1888, by Justice
Jennings Bailey, who sustained G
H. A. when it requested declaratory
judgment holding it was in no sense
illegally engaged in the practice Of
medicine or the insurance bushes!
or violating District laws, particu-
larly the Healing Arts Practice Act
Although the judgment was also
adverse to District Attorney Davic
A. Pine, who contended G.. H.. A
was engaged illegally in the prac.
tice of medicine, he has never ap-
pealed.
In today's opinion, written by AS
sociate Justice Wiley Rutledge, the
appellate court said:
&c H. A. is concerned principally
with getting service rendered to its
members and doing so at lower
prices made possible by quantity
purchasing and economies in oper.
alton. Its primary purpose is tt
reduce the cost, rather than the risk
OF medical care: to broaden the
service to the individual in kind ane
quantity; to enlarge the number
receiving it; to regularize it as ar
everyday incident of living, like pur
chasing food and clothing or oil anc
gas. rather than merely protecting
against the financial loss caused BY
extraordinary and unusual occur
rences, such as death, disaster al
sea, fire and tornado.
1T is in this instance to take cart
OF colds, ordinary aches and pains
minor ills and all the temporary
bodily discomforts, as we'll as the
more serious and unusual illnesses
To summarize, the distinctive fea-
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