Evening star., 1943-06-01
Canada Points the Wuy
Health insurance is around tl


corner-in peoples minds. They
want it. Inevitably it will come. We,
as the medical profession, more per-
haps than any other group, are
vitality concerned, and we must do
our best to see that the legislation,
when it is placed on the statute
books, guarantees progressively bet
ter medical service to the people
under conditions that will be
satisfactory to those who provide
the service"
The statement is quoted from a
recent article by Dr. T. C. Routley,
general secretary of the Canadian
Medical Association. He was refer
ring to legislation which now has
been introduced in the Canadian
Parliament, providing general health
insurance under conditions which
find the Canadian medical profess
sion willing advocate. It would
seem that the course chosen by the
doctors in Canada might be emu
ical profession in the United States.
For there is little doubt that health
insurance in the United States, as in
Canada. "is around the corner"
The important question is whether,
the legislation will represent the
handlWork of laymen more con-
cerned with social reform than with
the practice of medicine, or whether
it will be shaped with the help Of the
medical profession to guarantee
progressively better medical serv-
ice to the people," satisfactory to
those who provide the service.
Our medical profession has every
reason to be proud of its advances
under the present system. which
have resulted, in the words of some
of its distinguished members, in
giving our people the finest medical
service in the world. It has equal
reason to be jealous of the standards
it has attained and to fear move
ments in the direction of "regi-
mented" or "socialized" medicine
favored by some of the advocates of
the principle of health insurance.
But as the Canadian doctors evil
IDENTIFY decided, the most effective
way of preventing dangerous trends
in health insurance is not to fight
the principle itself but to see that
the principle is gained through leg
islation which preserves certain con-
cepts held by the medical profession
to be fundamental
In Canada the legislation now
pending would make the national
government the supervisor of health
insurance, extending grants-in-a
to the provinces which enact ap-
proved plans for themselves. Every
person under prescribed economic
level would be covered by insurance
and eligible for medical, surgical,
obstetrical, dental, pharmaceutical
and hospital benefits at a per capita
cost of about $26 year. The vitally
important principle of free choice
of doctors would be preserved; the
designation of family physician"
in fact, is encouraged And the
medical profession would be in
charge of the provincial commits
sions, on which there would be rep
resentation of the insured.
Certainly, if health insurance is to
come in this country, and it may be
taken for granted that it will,
Canada has demonstrated that it is
possible to frame legislation which
is as satisfactory to the medical
profession as it is to the bene-
ficiaries. The legislation may be
found, in practice, to contain faults.
The important thing, from the point
of view Of the doctors and the pub
lie, however, is agreement on the
principle. Progressive physicians in
Washington and in other communi-
ties are satisfied that this is the end
toward which the medical profess
sion must work in the United States.